Sirens and Sailors
by atothendy
Summary: My parents are involved in a world-wide crime ring, the X men are breathing down our necks, I accidentally killed a man, and my best friend just jumped off a cliff. The kicker? It aint even noon yet. Rated T for swears and situations. First story I've written and all, so any help is good help, yo.
1. 2 AM

Disclaimer: I'm not sure which universe this takes place in. Its just a mix of movies, cartoons and the comics. But Please, tell me if there's something confusing because I tend to get a bit excited. Also if the characters are off, I'm trying to keep them as they are. But thanks for just straight up reading this man. I mean the disclaimer? That's dedication man. I tip my hat to you.  
PS: I don't own anything except the OC and a large amount of phone bills.

* * *

The great, imposing granite griffin feature sat proudly above the massive door that it guarded. From its angle, it could scowl down upon any mortal who dared set foot in its domain. Though it didn't have many visitors to scare away, the griffin continued its vigil above the door, waiting for an unsuspecting intruder, or mailman, or salesman… or pigeon.

Fucking pigeons.

The view from the Stillman Estate that the griffin guarded was breathtaking. Just a few yards away from the back door that it was perched upon was the edge of a cliff, Loreley Cliff, where the world seemed to end for a moment, then plummet down into the sea. The estate was just as imposing and grandiose as the large fixture above its door, though slightly more clean. To the left were huge trees and a small garden, where the mistress of the house would occasionally plant flowers. To the right was a large expanse of grass, dotted with wildflowers and bunnies; and all around you could hear the call of the ocean down below, begging for you to just leap off the edge and fall towards it.

Though its natural surroundings were extensive, lavish, and beautiful; the large unnecessary angel fountain that marred the birds view was not. Not twenty feet away from the door-griffin was a large fountain complete with an angel pouring water over some rocks. The griffin twitched ever so slightly. It had seen too many Doctor Who episodes to feel safe to blink. Not that it could. It had no eyelids.

The griffin was under strict orders not to move a muscle. That would include eyelids if it had any. What the griffin was looking for it was not sure, but had been told that if anything happened, it would happen at the backdoor. So the griffin had had to sit on a tiny ledge, look imposing, and wait. For something. Anything. LIKE THAT! The griffins' eyes darted towards a bush near the line of trees that was rustling. Griffin tensed slightly as whoever was behind the incognito rustling came closer to the edge, and painstakingly slowly revealed itself to be…

A bunny.

_Dammit_. Griffin thought. _Bunnies are supposed to be in the large expanse of grass dotted with wildflowers, not the huge trees near the small garden_. Griffin made a mental note to explain to the bunnies that they had to stay on the right, not the left of the Stillmans lawn. _But perhaps_, the griffin continued tentatively, _that bunny was merely a decoy_?

The ever vigilant griffin continued its unblinking watch over the back of the estate, waiting for something, anything, to happen and give cause for the noble granite creature to swoop down in a flurry of stone-hard feathers and talons and catch up its prey. But nothing happened. Because little did the griffin know, all the fun was happening at the _front_ door.

~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~

"Fuck this door." Wolverine kicked in the expensive gold encrusted entryway with a certain joy that can only come from smashing in things you shouldn't.  
"Well, I suppose there's no need to be discrete anymore…" Jean trailed off, eyeing the bits of wood and dust clouds that arose from inside the mansion.

The X men had been sent on a mission in Saint Goarshausen, Germany. Scott, Gambit, Wolverine, Kurt and Jean were all dispatched to take on a particularly nasty group of people who were suspected for bank robbery, fraud, murder, unpaid bills, unpaid driving tickets, human trafficking, mutant trafficking, loitering, and illegal use of zippo lighters.

"This place looks empty," Kurt turned around inside the entryway of the manor "Is this the right home?" The Stillman Estate was indeed, still and empty. What furniture was left was covered in sheets, and a thick layer of dust had settled upon the sheets in question as well. One window had been left open, making the sheets rustle every so often and small dust tornadoes kick up.

"The coordinates from their last deal lead to this house" Scott explained "They must be here somewhere."  
"Yeah," Wolverine agreed with an incognito sneeze "I can smell 'em ACHOO here *sniff* someone was *sniff* he-e-e-AAAACHO. Here."  
"Shouldn't we be more careful? All dis sneezing and door smashing might alert someone to our presence." Remy mused.

~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~

Outside, the griffin pretended that the wind was picking up its feathers and ruffling them majestically.

~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~

"I don't think so" Scott walked into the house to join Kurt "The reason these people haven't been caught yet is because they're, well, hard to catch. They don't stay in one spot for very long. Most likely they did their deal, packed up and are long gone by now. We're here to find clues."  
"What sorts of clues?" Kurt asked. He'd found a suspicious looking bookcase and wanted very much to see if it would reveal a secret passage.  
"Anything and everything" Scott answered. "If it looks like a clue, feels like it could be a clue-"  
"Tastes like a clue…" Logan muttered.  
Scott eyed his least favorite team member as the Cajun laughed silently and turned his back. "Sure. Tastes like a clue. Then bag it or take a picture of it." Scott walked over to examine one of the floor tiles. _I'm so sick of his shit _he grumbled mentally.  
_It's just Logan, _Jean tried to soothe telepathically. _It's just the way he is. Don't let it bother you.  
_Scott agreed with her mentally, but continued to fume anyways.

A good three hours passed by with nothing substantial happening. Kurt, unfortunately, was not able to find the one book that would open a secret passage. Remy however had found some suspicious spices that he tried to convince everyone was crack so he could take it back to the mansion for "lab analysis".  
"Just don't let me find it in our food" Jean warned. "It's already sickening enough", which lead to a heated debate in the kitchen. Scott had overturned some couches and found nothing but more dust, dead spiders, rats, and all other forms of nasty. Logan had done nothing except stick his finger in a random hole in the wall that he had found while moving a painting.

"There's shit-all here." He complained.  
"Why don't we use your _enhanced senses to find something_" Scott seethed. He was stressed out. He had the feeling that something was so close but they were just missing it.  
"I can't when they're being overpowered by _stupid"_ Logan shot back.  
"Well then maybe you should turn it down."  
"How 'bout I just turn you down."  
"Well you'd like that wouldn't you?"  
"Might be why I suggested it."  
Logan folded his arms and glared at the team leader as Scott balled his fists and tried to keep the torrent of swears from exploding out.  
"Now, now, let's keep dis civil!" Remy took a break from his culinary argument with Jean to shout at the bickering men in the foyer.  
"Yeah that means a lot coming from someone who can't tell a sack of crack from someone's burned remains." Logan hollered back.  
"Sack of…?" Remy and Jean looked at each other and then down to the bag of "spices" they were arguing over. "_Oh_."

"BUT WERE THEY BLESSED?!" Kurt screamed as he rushed into the kitchen. He grabbed the sack of ashes from the shocked culinary artists and attempted to bless and pray for whoever was in the bag as Scott cried out for him to drop it.

Thirty minutes had passed until Kurt was satisfied with his work. He then climbed down from the large chandelier fifty feet in the air and handed the sack to Scott. "I am finished". He announced somberly. _Thank God_ everyone thought. Gambit and Wolverine had been playing cards when the blue priest had made his announcement. Jean had waited patiently seated on a stool while Scott impatiently walked crop circles into the dust. Scott unceremoniously tied up the bag and ran his hand through his hair. "Time to go" he sighed.  
"Is dat all we need?" Remy asked, astonished.  
"It's all we've found in the time we've been here." Scott answered lamely.  
"Seems disrespectful to keep a sack of remains in the kitchen. And also odd. Maybe they wanted us to find it?" Kurt mused out loud. Nobody really knew what to say.  
"Scott has a point, though." Jean explained, "And besides, it's almost six. People are going to wake up and ask why there's a jet in front of an abandoned mansion."

The team of X men made their way back outside to the jet. Kurt looked up at the pink sky and asked, "Hey what's that saying go about red skies in the morning?"  
"That is a literary device that is over-used but may mean something" Jean answered ambiguously.  
"Oh…" Kurt was unhappy with the answer because he did not like foreshadowing. Or ambiguous answers. Or sacks of human ashes.

~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~

Through this all, the stony griffin sat on its perch, scowling and glaring and alternating between the scowling and glaring trying to  
decide which better fit its facial features. When the early morning sky started to turn a pretty shade of pink, it hopped down. _I'm sick of this. My ass hurts and I'm cold and hungry and almost got pooped on_. The granite beast sneakily made its way around the manor to the front door, for the back door did not lead into the house.

_Oh_. Griffin froze as it tried to comprehend the sight before it. _Oh shit oh shit oh shit_. The griffin's life flashed before its eyes as it rushed inside, abandoning caution to the wind. It raced around all three levels, trying to find the intruders. _They must have found it already_! It cried inwardly. It barreled into the kitchen and raked the room with its eyes. _Nothing_! The beast tried its last hope and ran into the foyer. "NO!" it howled out loud. The picture frame had been carelessly tossed onto the ground, exposing the hole in the wall. "They've found it." It cried quietly. The creature stood up on its hind legs, head bowed in defeat and changed back into her normal human form. She approached the hole tearily and placed her finger inside, rotating it and pulled slightly to the left. She heard the familiar scrape and clunk as the bookshelf grated across the floor and exposed a secret passage. _I'm so fucked_, she berated herself. She made her way to the passage, not caring to change back into her better protected stony form.

"Everyone's going to kill me." She muttered. Walking down the stone steps, she braced herself for whatever danger was about to leap at her from the bottom of the stairs…

* * *

Who's at the bottom of the stairs? Who is this granite girl? What is her name? WHY DID THE X MEN MISS ALL THE CLUES AND IGNORE MY FORESHADOWING?! Stay tuned to find out. I guess. If you want to, I mean I'm not forcing you or anything. It's cool man. We're cool.


	2. 6 AM

Disclaimer: The only thing that's mind are the OCs  
PS: Thanks for reading/reviewing!

* * *

The young girl began to ponder her existence. Such a thing is common when faced with certain death. She mulled over the last three days; her employers – parents – had told her to keep a lookout for another "Crazy-ass American X-Man hit squad boy-band thing". That meant rival gang with mutant hit men. When her father had refused to go into greater detail, she went to ask her mom - the lady with the flower garden near the huge trees.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Mama. Mama. MAAAMAAA!  
"VAT?!" The middle-aged German woman looked up at her least favorite daughter from the quilt pattern she was designing. Only child, actually. Mama didn't like kids.  
"What am I looking for? Papa said boy-band. Are they scary? Do they have swords? Will they kill me?"  
"Hopefully."  
"Ah-haha. Ha. Mama you're funny…"  
"Ja? Go keep lookout. Come back one week."

And that had been the end of that conversation. The griffin-girl had to go to her last resort, the family's drug maker to see if he knew anything about these X-people. She used the bookcase to reach the spiderwebish-twisty-turny underground chambers where all the illegal activities took place. Everything was for sale in the Stillman's basement, from drugs to people to the sadly discontinued Twinkies.

The drug-dealer, Garvey, was an elderly Irish gentleman who was constantly in a foul mood and had a permanent grey cloud over his head. He was probably her most favorite person in the world, and possibly her only friend. Well, she thought they were friends. Garvey disliked her intensely.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

More than three minutes had passed and the girl still had not moved from her spot on the third step. _Man. Pondering takes a long time_. The only sound she could hear was eerie quietness echoing between the stone passages; usually you could hear the soft clink of bottles, the metallic rattle of chains or the quiet moans from the people waking up from being knocked out.

_But nothing's moving now. They've killed them all_.

Honestly, she was too afraid to go down. Sure, mostly they couldn't hurt her as long as she was in her stony form, but it was still scary. Hit squads she could handle, but hit squad _boy-bands_? She scrunched her face. Now that she thought about it, Papas code names were actually pretty stupid. Griffin decided that the best way to make her way down was to keep her mind off the fact that she was about to die; either by her parents if the boy-bands had already left, or by the boy-bands of they were hiding in her house. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and thought back to the first time she had questioned her father's use of code words, and slowly descended…

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Papa why do you call them boy-bands?"  
"Because they go as quickly as they come. Mutants vill disappear quickly, I vill make sure of this."  
There was a slightly awkward pause as the griffin-girl waited for her father to tell her that she was the most beautiful off all the mutants, and that they would keep her. But… he didn't.  
"Uh… Papa…?"  
"Vat?"  
"… Duh. Uhm. Papa… uh… I am. A mutant. Remember? The talons… uhm… I am… bird… rocks…"  
Her father continued his blank stare at her. _The point_? He seemed to be saying.  
"Well… never mind."  
"Good."

They had continued to walk around the garden that the girls' mother had been tending to earlier. The scene was pretty, but the conflicting smells from the flowers were making both of them sick to their stomachs. While exiting the shrubbery maze, her father stooped down and plucked a particularly frail yellow carnation from the ground. Its seed had been planted near a rock, and didn't have anywhere to put its roots. He held the pathetic foliage in his hand and considered tearing it apart. Something as ugly as the carnation did not deserve to exist in his wife's carefully looked after garden. He turned to his daughter, and offered her the flower.

"Vant this?"  
The girl eyed the flower skeptically. It was limp and smashed and had some petals missing. She took the offered stem with lone flower, however.  
"Danke. It's… flower."  
Her father looked at her out the corner of his eye. "Ja".  
He straightened his back and smoothed his jacket down. "I am going inside. You stay out here."  
"No, I'm coming in too-"  
"Was not question." Papa answered.

He left her there, with her pathetic flower, staring at him confusedly. He did not like pathetic things, but he preferred them staying in the garden than in the house.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

The girl was now at the bottom of the stairs. That last flashback had made her feel a bit sad. She remembered having stayed outside for several hours, before coming in. She'd taken the flower in with her though, and had planted it in its own box with fancy dirt. The pitiful blossom had grown as far as the small box had allowed it to, and when it could grow no more, she had made it its own garden inside her own room. She then took the rock that had almost choked the flower in her mother's garden and moved it to the flowerbox that the she had created in her own room. The rock was dwarfed compared to how big the flower had gotten. _Take that rock_.

"I shall call you Butter." She had whispered to the flower once.

She groaned out loud when she remembered that she used to talk to her flower. No matter though. She had made her way down the main passage and had stopped at the fork in passages. The left one led to the human/mutant holding cells. She tried to stay away from that part. She instead took the path on the right. At the end of the hall was a heavy metal door complete with a twelve digit passcode, retina scanner and massive padlock. The girl paused before opening the door. What if the boy band was behind the door? What if they had medusa-powers and could turn her to stone if she looked into their eyes? _Wait… stone. _She had forgotten to get back into her griffin form.

If she was going to take on these guys, she'd go in guns blazing. If she had any. Mostly she just had chunks of rocks. But she was prepared! Once completely griffin-fied, the girl inched forward, shoulders square, head high, stony feathers aptly ruffled and stony eyes… stoned. She braced herself, huffed, and then blasted through the door…

OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO

"Definitely not crack." Dr. McCoy announced with certainty.  
Iceman groaned, kicked over a trashcan and exited the lab.  
The rest of the group watched him leave and then turned their attention back to the fluffy doctor.  
"Go on." Scott prompted.  
"Right, right," Dr. McCoy tried to regain his train of thought from the sudden outburst. "Well it's not crack. Or spices. And it's definitely not burnt human remains either."  
Nightcrawler let out a sigh of relief.  
"It's actually a bag of dirt."  
"Dirt?" Jean and Remy asked in unison.  
"Yes." The doctor sifted through a small pile of the substance in question, "It's actually just very fine granite… some slate has been mixed in as well."  
"Any idea what it was used for?"  
"Most likely," the doctor mused, "this was an artifact of sort. Maybe the slate was used for decorative pieces? It must have broken… not sure why it's in a bag though. These are very common materials."  
"Maybe they were making another decoration?" Jubilee snapped her gum and gave her two cents worth. It was very boring down in the lab, but she wanted to hear Wolverines tale of epicosity and fearless door-kicking.  
"Possibly…" Hank McCoy had no idea what you could make with a sack of granite and slate; nothing too nefarious… unless you planned on hitting someone with it.

"Well. I didn't really expect anything too substantial" Professor X chuckled, "But never before have you brought me back a sack of dirt."  
"It was Remy's idea" Kurt insisted.  
Remy snorted. "You were da one who blessed it an' cried over it."  
"I thought it was a person! …Wolverine said it was a person."

The small group looked over to where Wolverine was leaning against a wall, uninterested, and smoking a cigar. He scowled and talked around the thing in his mouth. "I know what I smell. And that's a thing." He jabbed his finger angrily in the general direction of the sack and turned to go back upstairs.  
Scott tensed up, "There's no need to get so defensive, Logan. Maybe the dust was throwing you off…"  
"Bub, Imma 'bout to throw you off that cliff we were at…" Logan continued down the hallway, in a perfectly foul mood. _Definitely a thing_, He grouched. Nothing was going to convince him otherwise.

~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~

Professor X stared out his office window, contemplating the last unsuccessful semi-raid on the Stillmans. The family based crime ring had recently sunk its teeth into a small piece of Michigan, and the normally complacent Lake people had started rioting in the streets. Drugs were coming up from nowhere, people were being killed left and right, and both humans and mutants had just started… disappearing. The professor knew what was happening, the same scenario had occurred in Germany some seven years ago. First the family and its "relatives" would come in and make friends with the people, make promises and bribe officials, resulting in shady drug dealings that weren't looked into, resulting in deaths, resulting in people being kidnapped during the confusion and riots, resulting in the politicians doing nothing. Charles could only imagine what was happening to the people who were labeled as missing. Most likely being traded to some secret government sector and used for testing or experiments, turned into monsters, or tortured. The professors mind wandered to closest person he knew who had been through all that already.

The professor rubbed his brow and sighed. He was too old for this. He needed a drink. Like, water or something.

There was a light knock on his door. "Come in, you can always just come in…" he chuckled as the fiery red headed woman came in with a large glass of water.  
"Thought you might want this…" Jean trailed off, smiling.  
"It's like you can read my mind." The Professor took the offered glass and smiled back.

Jean watched her troubled leader as he nonchalantly sipped at his shaken not stirred glass of water.  
"Professor…"  
"Don't fret, Jean. We'll deal with these people quickly. We simply need more inside information before we shut them down. Naturally I've already tried Cerebro, but evidently, they've got someone shielding them."  
"Maybe we should go back? The place was abandoned. Maybe we might find something in the daylight…"  
"The house is most definitely not abandoned." Charles said. "It's the Stillmans home. It's been in their family for over fifteen generations, they would never completely leave. I don't think that deal we caught wind of there was their only deal, I think it was the only one that was able to slip though their defenses. Why else would they shield the place twenty four seven? Their house is the last place you'd expect to find a well-known organization, and I think they're taking advantage of that presumption."  
Jean understood the professors' line of thought. And a shield would explain why, if there was someone there, she couldn't feel them. "So back to my original question…?"  
The professor looked up at her. "Yes, maybe it would be best if we did it quickly instead of waiting too long… I'd like you and the rest of the team to go back and really search the place. I would have liked to avoid a scene, but…"

The professor motioned to the muted TV in the corner of the room. It was turned to the news, where two rioting groups had joined into a miniature army and were attempting to drown Lake Superior.  
"The drugs…?" Jean asked.  
"Whatever they're on, it must be some powerful stuff…"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

After much complaining that they'd just gone out, Remy and Wolverine were eventually strapped into the jets seats and hurdled back towards Germany.

"Dis is getting old. We wouldn't have to do dis if your nose jus' worked right the first time."  
"It works great. It's you idiots who didn't find-"  
"Maybe the reason it wasn't a clue is because it didn't taste like one" Kurt interjected.  
Logan looked back at him, and Kurt was very grateful that Logan was strapped into his seat and hated flying.  
"Okay listen up," Scott shouted back "Professor X said we could get our hands dirty this time, so don't feel bad about ripping their plush pillows apart or putting the books back once you take them off the shelf."  
Nightcrawler sighed in relief. That had taken a long time.

As they neared the Stillmans home, Jean could sense that the shield was no longer in place. _I wonder if the Professor managed to take it down?_ It seemed odd though; there were definitely people down there… thousands of them. Literally. Jean placed her fingers near her temples and tried to drown out the noise of nearly two thousand voices crying out for help. It was getting painful.  
"You alright?" Logan was looking at her concernedly.  
"Yeah…" Jean didn't sound so sure. "There are definitely people there"  
"Any idea how many?" Scott asked.  
"Probably over a thousand" Jean said through a pained smile.  
The jet went quiet.  
"Das… quite a few…" was all Remy could come up with.  
"I guess we'll find out what's happening once we land" Scott replied. "I'm going to approach this place differently. We'll follow the Rhine and make our way up the cliff this time. Might be more discreet."  
"Thought we didn't need to be discreet" Logan sulked. He was in a smashing mood.  
"We'll enter quietly and take it from there. What do you say Jean? …Jean?"

Jean merely nodded. The sounds were becoming louder the closer they got. Through all the screaming and crying though, she could make out one noise in particular. It sounded like someone was singing…

OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OoO

"WAS ZUR HÖLLE?!" Garvey screamed. He stared at the animated griffin sculpture that had just busted through a six inch metal door. The living stone creature seemed just as surprised as he was, as it jumped a few feet backwards at the sound of his voice. The granite statute turned to where he was and frowned, and cocked its head.

"Garvey?" It croaked.  
Garvey continued to stare. He had to lay off his drugs; this was the sickest thing he'd ever seen. "Uh… ja?"  
The granite beast continued to stare at him, though now it looked slightly anxious and pained.  
"Garvey where are they?"  
Garvey couldn't think of anything intelligent to say. It sounded like the thing just said 'Gaudy wear owl day'. It was hard to understand it over the scraping stone accent that it had.  
"Uh… ja?"  
The creature stood there for a few more seconds, then approached him quickly  
"No-mmph" his mouth was quickly covered and shushed as the thing rushed him out of his drug lab and up the stairs.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

The griffin was now aptly terrified. Were these people messing around with her? Making her think she knew what was going on? This day was spiraling down quickly on the list of her "best day ever" book. She half hopped half flew up the stairs and into the foyer, and deposited the Irishman on his ass near the shattered door. The poor man was red in the face from all the stress, or maybe he was just very angry.

The first course of action that he took once she had set him down was to take a large piece of door and crack it against her head. This, of course, did nothing except make a few flakes of granite swirl to the ground and his hands ache. He looked up from his piece of door and into one of the beasts' unblinking eyes. For some reason, all he could come up with was "Lorelei". He went with it.

"Die… Lorelei?" maybe it was a passcode or something.  
The lion-bird ducked its head a bit so that it was eye level with him. Its brow furrowed slightly, and if it had eyelids, the gesture would probably resemble squinting.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Die Lorelei" was worried for her friend. He'd never called her `_The_ Lorelei' before. Usually it was just Lorelei. Or Ass-hat. She liked the last one, he said it funny. After and awkward stare that was exchanged between the two, she accepted that he was not in fact an imposter.

"Has anyone gone by? Where are the intruders? Where are Mama and Papa?"  
Garvey continued to watch the creature in front of him. It was trying to communicate with him, but he was too high and it was too stony for him to form any rational thought.  
Lorelei waited for him to say something intelligent, but when nothing came out, she gave up and instead opted for the shaking method. "Garvey where is everyone?!" She screamed.  
"LORELEI!"

Lorelei spun around and looked for the source of the voice. It was Papa, on the top of the stairs. He looked pissed.  
"Hi…" She grated.  
"Lorelei vat are you doing?"  
She looked down and the grinning Irishman who was beyond tripping by this point. "Uh…" She wasn't sure if she was more scared of the codename boy-bands, or her father. She went with boy-bands. "Papa… there are people…"  
The earth seemed to slow down for a minute as her father's rage seemed almost palpable. He must have connected the broken door with the fact that she was in her _other_ form and _inside_ the house.  
"Lorelei…" he hissed through his teeth.  
She ducked her head and looked up at him "But Papi…"

Through their exchange of glares and glances, both father and daughter noticed a slight whirring sound, as though a large computer where overheating and trying to cool down. Lorelei had no idea what the sound was, but Papa looked horrified and practically flew down the stairs. _So graceful_ she thought, _he doesn't even have wings and he does it better than I do_. Not that her wings were even useful anyways. She couldn't fly. She could, however, fall with style if she found a high enough perch. But she couldn't take off. _If this world made less sense than it does now_, she mused; _I'd rip the wings off of that nasty angel fountain and use those instead._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Garvey was eventually able to return to his post without hyperventilating once it was explained to him that, yes, Mr. Stillmans daughter was a mutant, and yes, her superpower was the ability to basically turn into a fancily shaped rock, and yes, he wasn't tripping as hard as he thought he was.

Lorelei was so relieved that her father wasn't freaking out about the false alarm and smashed doors that she didn't mind helping him out when he called her to fix some brain machine. He explained to her that it was vital to keep this machine running at all times, else the estates only real source of protection would collapse and leave them vulnerable. _What we really need_, she figured, _is a sonic screwdriver that will fix this thing without yammering on about it_.

Her father was still working on the stupid thing when the cuckoo on the clock danced around ten times. He was getting angry and nervous. Lorelei would probably have understood why if she had been paying attention when he explained what the machine did. Something about a shield?  
"Is it still broken?"  
"JA!" her father roared.  
The now human formed griffin decided that the best place to be during this time was not there.

Lorelei made her way upstairs where her mother was cleaning up and muttering about "useless children" and "beautiful doors".  
"Need help Ma?"  
"Oh nooo." Mama answered, "I'll just do everyone else's job around here."  
Lorelei stood there, knowing Mama didn't want to clean it, and also knowing that if she tried to clean it herself Mama would complain. There was no making anyone happy.  
"I'm going outside…" she mumbled. "To watch…"  
"Oh, ja. Lot of good that did last time."

Lorelei walked to the back of the house and climbed her way up the wall to her perch. _What a shitty day,_ she moaned. _And its not even noon yet_. As she sat tall against the wall, she didn't bother to scowl or pull her face. _Today, I shall just be a griffin,_ she told herself. She kept one eye on the angel statue and another on the Rhine's horizon, watching for a random invisible person to try to knock down her door. She felt the wind tickle the back of her neck, and she couldn't help but shiver and wonder if maybe someone was there…

* * *

It's no one. Probably no one is there. :)  
This chapter was twice as long because I couldn't figure out a good place to end it. But hopefully I picked a good spot... So... this is most likely going to be a fairly short story. But this is fun. For me. I'm having fun. Thanks for reading my rambles though!


	3. 10:30 AM

Oh man, fight scenes. Bear with me. XD

PS: Ashli Locknane - Ay thank you so much! I actually didn't even plan on her joining at all. I was just going to have her skirt around the edges and only help out if they practically begged. Or she really wanted something and had to suck up. I like your idea better though, to have her join and just not get along - I wouldn't have to change the POVs as much. I hate that, when I read it over it sounds confusing to me. Might have to fight you on the romance one though... but that was going to be a one sided love/hate type thing. If that even makes any sense XD  
PPS: EpicGuestReview0001 :) - THANK YOU! (Sorry I didn't see you reviewed the first chapter). I was so worried that I had made it too choppy and hard to read. YOU HAVE BOOSTED MAH EGO!

~Thanks for reading! (and reviewing if you do)~

* * *

There is very little worth thinking about when you're sitting in direct sunlight on a tiny ledge, besides how nice it would be to jump into a river. Thinking about anything else would probably make your brain overheat and explode. Scientific fact.

Lorelei was currently in the above mentioned situation. Once again she was sitting on her perch, but her usual griffin-scowl had been replaced with a look of anxiousness - and anxiousness does not make a griffin look impressive; Lorelei knew this because she had made faces in front of a mirror for hours on end. Unfortunately, what was actually on the birds brain was not how nice it would be to jump into a lake. She was mulling over the last few hours… which explained why she was getting hot under the feathers.

The events that had transpired within the last ten hours were the most perplexing and brain exploding subjects that Lorelei could possibly think of at the moment. She couldn't wrap her head around the sequencing of it all, and the obvious facts only seemed to make the story more confusing.

The front door was clearly smashed in. That was a given and probably meant that the intruders were unafraid of being detected… or trying to make a statement. Lorelei ruled the statement theory out though; they had found the keyhole in the wall and walked all over the house. She figured that they must have found the keyhole rather than have known where it was because the footprints indicated they were looking for something. If they had known where the secret door was, they would have gone straight to it.

Now that rational was all fine and dandy to Lorelei, but _where the hell where they_ and _why_ did they stop when they were so close to raiding one the world's greatest crime organizations? Lorelei didn't believe that they had gotten annoyed and given up, that made no sense. They probably even knew that they were close… and giving up didn't seem to be a thing in their nature seeing as how they were adamant of _busting down the door_. So where were they?

They were still in the house!  
_No_…  
Lorelei had searched the house before even noticing that they had found the keyhole; there wasn't enough time to hide. So… they must have left during the confusion when Lorelei was looking for Garvey!  
_No…_  
That wouldn't work unless they were still on the first level of the house. Lorelei had only been in the cellar for two minutes tops, and she'd spent three minutes on the first step. So, she was only distracted for about five minutes. And if you're in a huge mansion that you've never been in before, you'd need more than five minutes to regroup and find your way back out.  
_So… where are they? And if they did leave before I left my post, why did they go when they were so close to finding us?_

Lorelei felt her head start to pound. The heat was ridiculously overwhelming, and all these thoughts of conspiracies and robberies and… _robberies_. They had taken her sack of granite flakes. Now that just pissed her off. Why the hell did they need her granite dandruff? The only reason she set it aside in a bag was to keep it safe and dry if she ever need add it back onto herself. If she lost an arm or leg or _useless freaking wing_ she could just add some fancy dirt and, voilà, new appendage.

_If I ever find who took my stuff_… The griffin-girl was so busy boiling from the heat and the thoughts of what she would do if she ever caught her skin-stealer that she didn't even noticed when the rocks near the edge of Loreley Cliff began to rumble…

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Easy… easy…" Scott gently inched the jet up a mere five feet away from the cliff face. Even though the jet was pretty much invisible to the human eye, the explosion that it would make if it hit the cliff would not be. Also they would probably die. Or at least be greatly injured.  
Once he had the iron bird hovering eyelevel with the edge of the cliff, he looked for a safe and slightly discreet place to land. There was a small forest and a large field to choose from.  
"So… where do we park?"  
"Next to dat purple flower!" Remy pointed vaguely in front of them towards the open field.  
"O-o-kay…" Scott sincerely made a concerted effort to land the jet next to a purple flower, but once they landed, all Remy did was complain.  
"I really wanted dat flower." Remy looked about and sighed. "It woulda looked pretty in Marie's hair, no?"  
Kurt plucked a particularly large white wildflower from the ground. "There are hundreds of other flowers to choose from." He chided. "Maybe this one?" He extended the pretty weed towards his friend.  
"Yeah…no… I wanted da purple one."

"Listen, guys, we can discuss this later. There are people who need our help right now."  
Jean was irritable. The sound from all the prisoners was deafening; usually she'd be able to drown out a lot of voices - she did it on a daily basis. But that singing voice she had heard earlier had faded out into a very loud white noise, and it was making it hard for her to concentrate. She needed to stop whatever was making that sound, or go insane.

"Right." Wolverine grinned wickedly. "So let's set the captives free and fuck things up along the way."  
"I'm with Logan on dis one." Remy concurred. "Anyone who kidnaps and sells people deserves a good kick in de ass."  
Scott snorted. "Kidnapping, right now, is probably one of their most moral offenses. You should see what they're being charged with if they get caught."  
"We're not here to actually catch anyone, are we?" Nightcrawler asked.  
"No… but if we can… we should make a… uh, citizen's arrest. Or something."  
Logan stared at the red-lensed mutant. "Citizens… what?"  
"Just tackle them and try not to kill them." Scott answered. _Dammit he's so thick-headed_!

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was incredibly hot. She was considering giving up her post to get some water when a cool breeze picked up, ruffling her stony feathers and making them grate together. _Sweet Jesus that feels good, s_he sighed. If the draft could just stay like this all day she might be able to make it through. Unfortunetly, just like most good things, it came to an abrupt end. She was about to wail loudly and throwing a temper tantrum when she noticed that _five people had just appeared out of nowhere _and were standing nonchalantly in her field_._

Oh. Griffin froze as she tried to comprehend the sight before her. _Oh shit oh shit oh shit_. She'd felt this before. It was the same terror she'd felt when she saw the front door busted open. Only now she had no plan of action and was free to hyperventilate. Which is exactly what she did.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Right. I say we go through the backdoor this time." Logan announced.  
"Why? The front door's already open."  
"I feel like breaking things. And I don't like this house."  
"Logan, these people probably have defenses set in place."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

The Stillmans only external security system was stuck on its perch, heavy breathing, and on the verge on squealing and running for its life. Screw guarding the back door. They could have it. It didn't even lead into the house, it just extended underground and had pressure plates to reseal the door. _Leave. Just go. Run. Just run away! RUN AWAY!_ _RUUUN!_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Heh, look at dat ugly statue. I'm glad we don't have one of those back home."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

_He's referring to that nasty-ass angel statue, right?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"It's kind of creepy, actually. Maybe it would keep da trespassers away?"  
"Yeah. An angel is gonna keep a bunch of crazy mutant-haters from storming the mansion. Right."  
"He's done it before…"  
"That's not what I meant."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

_What the actual hell is even going on? Are they here to steal the fountain?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~_  
_  
"Wait." Logan stopped the advancing team and sniffed tentatively. "It's that smell again…"  
"What smell?"  
"That sand and ashes smell…"__

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei froze. Well, even more than she already was. _Wait,_ _He can smell… like a dog_? _Well. Anyone has the capability of smelling like a dog, but this guy can find a scent like a dog? Or... any other animal with a nose for that matter…?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"It's close…" Logan continued.  
"It's nothing, Wolverine. Hank said it was just a bag of…"  
"Shh, shh, shut the fuck up."  
"Don't you fucking-"  
"_I SAID QUIET!"_ Logan roared.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei watched the strange group of people advancing on the door. An angry short man was telling a man with funny red glasses to `shut the fuck up'. If she was going to act, it had to be now. She steeled herself. _Okay Lorelei… it's now or never. One… _she shifted her weight to her back right foot._ Two… _tilting her wings slightly, she found the best angle for an aerial attack_._

"THREE!" Griffin flung herself from her perch above the door and aimed to snap Red Glasses neck.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"RHEY!"  
The X men's heads snapped to the sound of a voice. A large statue had fallen from the roof and was plummeting towards them.  
"Scott!" Jean shouted from besides the jet. She grabbed a hold of him and Logan and telekinetically shoved them out of harm's way.  
The statue crashed into the ground thunderously loud… and on its feet.  
"The…?" Was all Logan could get out before a large granite fist slammed into his jaw and sent him flying.  
"HOLY SHIT DIS TING MOVES!" Remy howled, charging up his metal staff.

The animate statue, however, was quick to realize that the guy with creepy eyes' stick had something to do with his powers, and slammed a wing into his right arm. Lorelei heard a disgusting crunch and figured that maybe her wings weren't completely useless after all... until a beam of red light vaporized the offending limb before her eyes.

In an instant, more than a thousand thoughts rushed through her brain. The first one was to scream. Not because she was in pain, but because it was weird to see a piece of her body get _vaporized_. The other nine hundred and ninety nine were mostly cuss words and tiny flash backs. Unfortunately, that same instant was all the creepy eyed guy needed to throw something that exploded in her face. Lorelei's world spun for a second, and she regained her balance when she came to a stop in the middle of the wildflower field.

Lorelei gathered herself together (minus one wing) and quickly darted back into the fray. And again. And again. And again. And aga- wait what? She stopped trying to go back and fight. Why was she moving backwards? Lorelei looked behind her and saw a blue demon looking thing holding onto her lone wing. It raised one of its hands and waved.  
"Uh… hi?" it asked.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Kurt held on tightly to the creatures wing. It was staring at him with a look of intense concentration. "_I don't like being looked at like this…" _he thought. It seemed like the creature was counting all the ways it could kill him.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei had a strict rule when it came to animals when she was in her griffin form: "no touchie"; She was afraid she might accidentally hurt them. And it just so happened that this thing had an adorable tail. So… therefore animal.  
Lorelei frowned. "Get off" She growled.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Kurt understood what the griffin was saying. It spoke like it was scraping two stones together, but he could just barely make out some consonants.  
"Ah! You are a mutant then!" He exclaimed. "I thought you were some high level security golem or something!"

Lorelei had absolutely no idea what the monkey was talking about, but she needed to get these people away from her house. Bracing herself, she lurched forward and bucked like a bull.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Kurt was very acrobatic; he could have easily hung onto the flailing stone creature for hours. Unfortunately, the thing had gotten in a lucky shot; while Kurt was dropping down from the beasts' last buck; it had thrown its head back and bashed him in the eye. Kurt was flung from Lorelei's back and landed very near the edge of the cliff.

"Ow." Kurt covered the left of his face, which was now battered and dripping blood.  
Lorelei looked back at her handiwork_. At least it's not dead_.  
She turned and chased after the group that was now attempting to enter through the back door. She was just a few yards away when the angry swearing one pried the door open.  
_YOU_. She seethed. _He's probably the same guy who smashed the front door_!

Lorelei didn't care if they got stuck inside the hallway, but she at least wanted to make the door-wrecker pay before he starved to death.  
She gathered her strength and threw herself into his back.  
_Aw_. She groaned. _He didn't even cry_. _Must have gotten the angle wrong._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Logan had gotten over his punch fairly quickly; but he'd been thrown surprisingly far, and he wasn't exactly the fastest guy on earth.  
_Dammit_. He got his legs back under him and made his way to the door while Scott tried to dismantle the statue and Kurt tried to teleport it away. He had heard the Cajuns' bones crunch when the beast hit him with its' wing.  
_Must've broken a few ribs too, there was more than one snap_. Logan wasn't too worried about himself, but if that creature hit one of the others in the head or the neck too hard, they were done for.

He passed Jean sitting on the ground with her hands over her head. She looked tired and was concentrating very hard on something.  
The statue was being taken care of by Kurt at the moment, so Logan instead opted for getting the door open.  
_No use in wastin' time I guess_. He extended his claws and managed to unlatch the door just as something very hard and very heavy collided into him and pinned him down.  
"Agh, fuck" he heaved.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei couldn't believe that the guy was still speaking. At the very least she should knocked the wind out of him. _Man, I really fucked that angle up_. She retreated from the smashed man as he slid to the ground. Okay one more time. _Let's see how YOU like being kicked in_.

Lorelei dug her talons into the ground and once more catapulted herself onto the crumpled man. Everything was perfect. The angle, the slight breeze, the sun on her back – until she collided with him. She didn't feel it, but when she looked down to see if she'd successfully pancaked him, she saw that he'd shoved _knives_ into her chest_._

Lorelei glanced between the knives that extended out the guys hands and his face. _  
_"This it?" She asked. She didn't mean to be rude (okay she did), but if this was the best this guy had, she had been seriously overestimating _everyone_. Maybe claws and a bad attitude meant death to some, but it did shit all when you directed the two at a chunk of rock.

Logan looked at the stony birds face. He wasn't entirely sure what he had expected to happen. He knew the griffin was a mutant at the very least. Maybe he expected at least a little fear; hand-knives can be pretty scary.  
"Guess so." He finished lamely.  
"Hm."  
Lorelei felt a bit bad. It was going to be hard to exact revenge upon someone who couldn't really even hurt her back. Oh well.  
She grabbed the guy by the throat (she'd given up on smashing him), grunted and lobbed him into the red-glasses guy who was trying to sneak up on them. _Damnit he's heavy,_ she thought.

The two men had collided, and even though there were no bone-shattering echoes, they did make a nice thump noise then they hit the ground. The red-glasses guy had been stunned, but angry man was getting up. _Geez, he's tough to get rid of._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Logan rolled off of the team captain and got back to his feet. He was slightly pleased that he had managed to knock Scott out, but now he was the only one left. Well, besides Jean who was currently battling a headache. Kurt wasn't able to teleport without falling over first, and Remy was in some serious pain near where Kurt was attempting to get blood out of his own eyes.

He turned to face the griffin that was standing about a yard away observing the scenery. He had to get rid of this thing.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was already celebrating her victory. She'd dealt with the intruders and all she had lost was a wing. Two were near the cliff edge tending to their wounds, and Knives Guy had just knocked out Funny Glasses. She could have sworn there was a fifth one, but maybe it was just the heat and stress that made her see five of them standing in the field.

_Let's finish this up, then_. _Maybe Mama and Papa will be pleased if I not only stopped the intruders, but captured them as well_…

Best. Day. Ever.

Lorelei readied for the last attack. Obviously it was going to be hard to knock the guy out, so all she really had to do was capture him. _I need more rocks_, she realized. She was too far away from the cliff to use those ones; she'd have to get Knife Man to go there for her… and she knew just how to do it.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Remy had thought the majority of the pain was over after the statue had broken half his torso and his arm; but when he'd thrown a card at the things face, the pain from overexertion crippled him. He'd had to sink to his knees, hiss and bare his teeth to keep from howling. Kurt had enough time to teleport him away from the midst of the battle, though, before taking on the beast himself. Remy watched in pity as Kurt was bucked off and had his face bashed in. He'd fought through the pain to get to his friends side and see if there was any brain damage or something. Not that Remy even knew what to look for.

"You're okay mon ami." Remy consoled. "Head wounds jus' bleed more dan normal ones."  
Kurt gave a slight nod, his head was swimming and he couldn't see straight.  
They had stayed in that same spot while Logan was rammed into a door and Scott was smothered underneath the Canadian. The stone beast was now squaring off with Wolverine and no doubt was already thinking that it had won.

But that's when something unexpected happened. The griffin turned and fled from Wolverine… now it was making a beeline for _them_.  
"Shit." Gambit cursed.  
"Vat?" Kurt asked. He was slowly regaining some of his vision.  
"Is time to go." Remy grabbed Kurt and remembered that he couldn't teleport.  
"_Shit_."  
"VAAAT?!"  
Remy watched helplessly as the granite creature extended a large taloned hand and slowly aimed to lop off his head…  
_  
Marie_… _agh, nooo…_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei snaked around the short man and made her way to the two on the cliff. _He's going to have to save them_, she grinned. _They have no way to defend themselves...  
_She heard him swear and knew he was chasing after her. _It's working!  
_What happened next was not what Griffin had planned on happening, though.

She reached out to Scary Wide-Eyes on the ground to add a sense of urgency for the Knife Guy to get there faster. Which he did, albeit a bit too quickly; he slammed into her side, claws and all, and knocked her off balance. Lorelei twisted in midair and made sure to roll land on top of him, which was a bad move because it exposed her face and gave him room to cut off one of her ears.

"AGH!" she yelped. "THAT HURT!"  
_Now I looked uneven. Fuck._  
Logan couldn't care less what the thing looked like, human or not, and this time aimed for her neck.  
Lorelei had no time to duck or even cover her face before his hand sank into her throat. This time Lorelei screeched very loudly because the whole situation was very weird, and she was kind of stressed out.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Logan's ears were very sensitive, and the thing above him was emitting the most horrific wail he'd ever heard in his life. Since he had no room to cover his ears, he went with the best solve-all solution he knew of…

cut _everything._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was still crying when the bastard on the ground reached up and cut off the arm she was using to feel where her ear once was.  
That was the last straw. Lorelei was beyond stressed and scared by this point. Really she just wanted them to go away and _stop_ ruining all the nice illegal activities they had going on. The weeping griffin had reached her breaking point.  
_  
Who the hell are you_? Lorelei thought, gripping the man on the ground and hefting him into the air one handed.  
_To come in here,_ she turned towards the edge of the cliff.  
_AND STEAL MY DANDRUFF? _In her unthinking rage, she tossed the heavy man off the side of the cliff as if he were nothing but a sack of rocks.  
"Fucking die" she hissed after his falling body.

She watched as Logan collided with the jagged ledges of Loreley Cliff on the way down before smashing into the unforgiving rocks at the bottom. She felt a certain sense of accomplishment when she saw his limp body sink to the bottom of the Rhine where so other many men had died. _They died for Loreley_, she mused, _and you died by Lorelei_. She grinned wickedly. _Dammit I'm so poetic_._  
_  
She stayed there for a minute, half expecting him to levitate back up. When nothing happened, she turned to where the two men were sitting, watching the spectacle unfold in front of them. Lorelei saw their looks of horror, and slowly realized what she had just done.

"…Oh _scheisse…"_


	4. NOON

EpicGuestReview002: WHO TOLD YOU?!  
Ashli Locknane: I understand completely. I've read some good ones though, but I've also found myself wondering if there are any where the characters are completely spot on, or at least close without. I'm okay with OCs as long as the originals are... well... themselves XD Writing this story has made me realize (for me anyways) that its actually like, a bajillion times harder than it looks. I cant even remember what types of interactions Logan and Scott have with each other, other than fighting... and I know they have _some. _But... yeah. Sorry for long reply. AND THANK YOU :)

TO THE STORY!

* * *

The great imposing granite griffin feature sat proudly above the massive door it – nah fuck it. Lorelei's dead.

"DEAD?!" Lorelei cried. "The fuck is this?!"  
She floated upon the nothingness that had consumed her just moments before. Or was it years? It was hard to tell. She had no watch. She didn't have much of anything, really. No arms, no legs… just… consciousness; the sense of knowing your alive, but not quite sure how.

_This day sucks_.

Lorelei wasn't even sure how she'd got to where she was now. There was an explosion in the wildflower field, she remembered that much; It's not every day you see dandelions spontaneously combust. There was also Garvey, who probably came out to see what all the fuss was about. He was incinerated and thrown off the cliff by some invisible force. Blue Monkey had poofed off with Scary Wide-Eyes and Red Lenses to some godforsaken place just before the second explosion. The second blast had looked like a pretty birdie, and it was the same one that knocked Lorelei off the cliffs edge.

The worst part is that it wasn't even the fire that killed Lorelei – or the fall down for that matter. It was that damn water at the bottom; it stung like acid and broke her apart within seconds.  
_If I had a sense of humor_, Lorelei mused; _I might've screamed 'I'm melting!_'  
She sighed. Well, not really. But in her mind she did. _I should've realized earlier I'm allergic to water. Might've put a fence up around the edge or something_…

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Logan grunted and pulled himself up onto a rock near the base of the cliff.  
"Fucking dammit these Germans and their alarm systems. Gets me every fucking time…"

Up near the mansion, Kurt hobbled away from the pile of unconscious bodies he'd teleported and toppled over. _I'll just take a nap here_… he was asleep before his head hit the ground.

When the sun's red glare blinded her lidded eyes, Jean finally returned to consciousness. Everything was peacefully quiet. Quiet… quiet's never a good thing_. _She sat upright and squinted through the haze.  
_Well where'd everyone go_? She looked about for the rest of the group. No one was in sight. _At least that horrible noise is gone_.  
She pushed herself up and suddenly understood why everyone was missing.  
"_No_…"

The entire landscape had been reduced to cinders; the back of the estate was blackened and had chunks of wall missing, the trees were missing their leaves and there wasn't even a wildflower in sight.

_I couldn't of_…

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

_"_FEAR ME!" Lorelei bolted upright. "I AM THE-!"  
_Oh._  
She was sitting on a beach…. that was a good thing, at least she was alive. _But what is that… brown…? Is that a rock?  
_Lorelei reached out to touch the substance in question. _Burlap...?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Dr. McCoy tripped over his own two feet and nearly messed the contents of a beaker onto his coat. He was running on his seventh straight cup of coffee, and wasn't exactly functioning at his best. He set the beaker down before he could hurt himself, and decided that maybe it would be best if he just got some sleep.

Beast spent a good hour more cleaning up and putting things back in their place. By the time he was finished, he'd had to down his ninth cup just to keep moving. When everything was in order, he walked over to the door and looked back at his lab. In his muddled mind, he could have sworn he saw the sack that the team had brought back move. Beast rubbed his eyes and thought better of it; he turned out the light and made his way upstairs to bed.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was stuck in her burlap sack. She had no idea how she got there, but she now understood why she thought she was floating. And dead.

When she had been melted, she must've transported to the nearest source of herself that was available. Just like when she added flakes back onto herself when she lost a piece of her body, she must be able to transfer her consciousness to those parts as well.

_This is so awesome._

What wasn't awesome, though, was that she had no idea how to take on her griffin form. _It's not like a muscle type reaction thing. Whenever I needed to add more of me when I lost something, it just happened._ She continued to float around her sandy burlap-y world, trying to figure out how to pull herself together. _Maybe a switch or something_?  
She heard someone scuffling and the clinking of glasses. _Papa?_ She wondered. She tried calling out, but had no way of forming and words. She kicked with her mind at the sack, and tried in vain to get out. Eventually she settled down, despondent, and okay with living the rest of her life out in a brown bag.

_I'm going to die here and no one will even care_.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

The professor was laying in his bed when he heard Hank shuffle up the stairs. He considered saying goodnight, but thought better of it.  
_I might startle him_…  
Charles folded his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. The mansion was sleeping, but for some reason he could not. There was a very annoying sound far off in the background, somewhere between a massively slow mosquito and a slightly muffled river. _White noise…_ he mused before finally settling into his dreams.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was busy swimming laps around the sack when she felt herself come together. It was sudden, rude, and the sack ripped and spilled her onto the floor.

"FREEDOM!" She screamed. Lorelei jumped about excitedly and realized that everything had turned pitch black again.  
_So close…_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Jean had located most of the team by nightfall, but was struggling to load them all onto the jet. Logan was also currently AWOL, but she figured he couldn't be too far. Remy needed medical attention quickly, and Scott had come to a few hours earlier and helped her carry Nightcrawler. They were just finishing strapping everyone into their seats when Wolverine emerged from the edge of the cliff and ambled over to them.  
"You hurt yourself?" Scott asked. Wolverine was walking like he had a stick shoved up his ass.  
"Back off bub." He snarled.  
"We'll look at it when we get home." Jean interrupted before they could start another argument.

Logan's spine was just a bit bent. He grabbed a hold of the back of one of the seats and twisted himself until he heard a loud popping noise.  
"Don't need ta."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei solved her blindness problem by turning on the light switch.  
"…Where am I?"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Everyone in the jet was ignoring the fact that Jean had lost herself. Jean was ignoring the fact that everyone was ignoring it as well. I was ignoring the fact that I have no idea if the Phoenix was a separate entity or part of Jeans powers, so I just made everyone ignore it.

"I feel fine" Jean said to no one in particular.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Charles awoke to the sound of a wall breaking. _What on earth was that?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei tipped over backwards onto a large metal table, rolled off again; and managed to bring down a metal tray with all sorts of torture-looking instruments on it. It crashed to the ground, shattered some beakers and scattered the appliances everywhere.

_DISCREET! DISCREET!_

She attempted to gather all the things back together, but gave up when the liquid burned a hole in the tray. She instead brushed it all under the sink and threw a blanket over it.  
_  
It's like nothing even happened.  
_Lorelei heard the sound of a door sliding open, and knew she was in some deep trouble. The tarp slid off and exposed the pile of melted doctors' equipment, and she started to hyperventilate. _Just leave it. Just leave it and hide…hide… WHERE?!_

There was no place to hide; Lorelei panicked and spun around in circles. _Wherewherewhere?!_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Charles made his way down the corridor. He was sure he had heard a loud noise coming from downstairs – more specifically, Hanks lab. He turned the corner and stopped in front of the entrance. He listened closely for a second, but when he heard nothing he entered in the code and watched the door hiss open…

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei froze. It was what she was used to doing, and was a bit of a knee-jerk defense mechanism.  
_Well I'm screwed_.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Charles rolled his chair into the lab and stopped.  
"I could've sworn…" He muttered. He looked about for the source of the racket he'd heard earlier. A metal table had a large dent in it, and the stand that held the metal tray had toppled over. There was also a very distinct burning smell that stung his nose, but other than that…

The professor felt a small gust of wind behind him. He turned, but saw nothing.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei snaked past the old man in the wheelchair by climbing on the ceiling and then through the door. She paused in the clean bleach smelling hallway and realized that she had no way out. _Where the hell are all the doors in this place?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X eventually gave up. He had just exited the lab when the white noise he had heard before picked up again - but louder; it was a very aggravating sound.

Charles looked around, and his eyes finally settled in the furthest part of the corridor. There, huddled in the corner, was a mutant. It was hard to get a read on whoever it was, but they also seemed to be the source of white noise.  
"Hello." He said softly. No use in frightening whoever it was. While he couldn't read their mind completely, he could tell they were feeling, well, cornered.  
_…How did you get in here?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei didn't trust this wheeled man with his mind-questions. She stayed in her spot and stared at him balefully, hoping he'd give up and leave.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X took her silence as an indication that she couldn't even hear him telepathically. _It's like that noise is a fog around their mind, _He figured. He inched closer and extended his hand, palm up.  
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said evenly.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei watched the man inch forward_. _She considered taking him out, but he was just a silly old wheeled man. Also she'd already killed someone today, so she was trying to keep the death toll to a minimum.

_Damn you, morals._

Lorelei was also not at the pinnacle of griffin-ness anymore. There wasn't much granite in her sack, so she had limited resources to work with when she reformed. Right now, she only stood about a foot tall, and was still missing the ear that Knives Guy had hacked off. Compared to the five foot terrifying stone beast she had been just a few moments earlier, she looked like a wet angry cat... with a name like "Mr. Sprinkles" or something equally terrifying.

Wheelie continued forward slowly. _What if he's a mutant too? Geez. They're probably all mutant boy-bands from hell. _She inched closer to the wall… and really did look like an angry cat now. _Should I hiss? _Wheelie stopped six feet away, and Lorelei continued to glare as menacingly as she could.

"Are you hungry?"

_Wait…. What?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Charles went with the first thing he could think of. It had worked before… but it just seemed to catch the newcomer off guard instead. Oh well.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Uh… No?" Lorelei answered tentatively. _What the hell is this guy playing at? …I'm starving._  
Wheelie continued his concerned look and Lorelei glared daggers. _I'm not phasing this ass-hat. I need a better pla-  
_"We have empty rooms upstairs. You're welcome to rest in one of them if you'd like."  
_What.  
_"You seem to be quite drained..."  
_WHAT.  
"…_Come upstairs. We'll get you sorted out."

Bald Wheel extended his hand again. _Should I go? Who the hell is this guy? Where am I? WHAT IS- _Lorelei realized what an exceptional spot she was in. She had no idea where she was, and this bald guy was offering everything she currently needed on a _silver freaking platter_. He probably had a phone, hell he even offered room service. AND he wasn't trying to kill her. Well, as far as Lorelei could tell.

_I'll go with him. I'll play along as the scared and lost little mutant… and when the time comes I'LL BURN IT ALL AND DISAPPEAR! _

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Charles watched as the small griffin-shaped creature emerged from the shadows it had been cowering in. It approached him cautiously and then stopped besides his wheel and looked up at him.

He smiled at the little mutant, "My name is Charles. I'm afraid you're in my basement… let's head back upstairs."

Professor X motioned towards a random part in the wall and wheeled towards it. The animate statue trailed behind, engrossed on his bald head. As he approached, the door revealed itself and he entered the elevator, and the griffin just managed to scurry in before the door closed on its tail. But Professor X was no fool. He didn't believe for a second that this harmless looking statue was as scared and innocent as it pretended to be. For one, it had reached into a fairly high level secured floor. Not only that, but it was being awfully… amiable. For an intruder, that is.

He glanced at the griffin out the corner of his eye and for the first time in a long while, wondered what something was thinking.

* * *

THE ENEMY HAS INFILTRATED THE MANSION! Stay tuned next time to see what goes down... whenever. Uh. I haven't planned the next chapter yet. IT WILL BE CHAPTER-ISH THOUGH!

Thanks for reading this far though :) (and reviewing if it so happens to tickle your fancy)


	5. 24 Hours Later

I apologize for any weirdly shaped paragraphs. Copy paste wasn't copy-pasting like it should  
and I can't even preview what it looks like because EVERYTHING I'VE TYPED IS OUTLINED IN  
BLACK so that features basically useless to me right now. But that's mah ramble.

THANKS FOR READING, YO

* * *

Professor X looked over the girl that was seated on the other side of his  
desk. It was nearly three in the morning, and he'd spent the last hour and  
a half trying to coax her out of her stone form. When she had, he rewarded  
her with a Poptart, which she was now currently nibbling on.

"What is your name?"  
_"…"_  
"Do you have a parent or guardian to call?"  
_"…"_  
"Where is your home?"  
_"…"_  
Professor X leaned back in his seat and studied her over. She had veiled her  
face with her disheveled blond hair right after he had given her the treat, and now  
she refused to make eye contact.

_He has Medusa powers,_ Lorelei reasoned.  
_She must be up to something_, Charles figured.

The white noise that obscured her thoughts from him while in griffin form had  
dissipated as soon as she had become human again. It was easy for the Professor to go  
in and poke around now, but there were large chunks of her memory that was  
mostly - for lack of a better word - silent white noise. Charles understood that the  
silent parts in her mind must come from her memories when she was transformed; the  
rest must be from when she wasn't.

What disturbed him the most was that the parts he could read were set in  
Germany. Well, that wasn't the real problem; the real problem was that it was  
set in the Stillmans home on Loreley Cliff.  
_There's no doubt that this girl is related to the Stillmans_. Charles thought. _She is literally  
related to them, she _is_ a Stillman_. He laced his hands together in front of his face and leaned  
onto the desk, making it creak on the edges a bit. Lorelei glanced up, startled by the sudden  
high pitched noise, and then quickly looked away. _Shoot, I looked in his eyes._

Charles grinned behind his hands. Most people were afraid that he would see their  
deepest, darkest, most intimate thoughts. This one was worried she'd turn to  
stone.

"Is there anything that you'd like to tell me at all?"  
_Oh… crap. That's what Papa says when he gives me a chance to tell him what I've done wrong._  
"…Lorelei?"  
_Oh. _Lorelei peeked through her fringe at the bald headed man. He didn't _look_ angry.  
_He knows my name.  
He wants to know what I did wrong.  
He knows my name.  
HE CAN READ MY MIND!  
_  
Lorelei jumped up from the chair and threw the processed pastry to the ground.  
Her eyes were welling up with tears and it made his bald head look distorted  
and stupid.  
"I didn't mean to do it!" She shouted, "He made me!"  
Professor X was not fazed by her outburst, if anything he expected it; such a  
thing was common for people in denial.  
"Who did? Made you do what?" He scrutinized at her twisted facial features. Was  
she admitting to being involved with the Stillmans so easily?  
Lorelei sobbed softly and covered her face. "That horrible, horrible man..."  
Charles nodded understandingly. Stillman. He often employed children to do his  
dirty work… _but his own child? _"What  
did he make you do?"  
"I vasn't thinking. It's just, I vas so afraid and… and… I had nowhere else to  
go…"  
"It's all right," he soothed. "I understand. You were scared that he'd come after you if you  
left?"  
Lorelei simply nodded.  
"It's all you grew up knowing, isn't it?" Charles asked.  
Lorelei contemplated the question for a brief second, then nodded a bit more  
hesitantly than before.  
Charles noticed her apprehension and prodded for more answers. "Is that why you  
left?"  
Lorelei looked at the Professor between her fingers and wiped her eyes with the  
back of her sleeve and sniffed very loudly. "No, it's why I threw him off the  
cliff."  
_She threw Stillman off a cliff? _"Really? You threw Mr. Stillman off a cliff?"  
Lorelei squinted at the mind-reader. _Papa? _"No, Knives Guy."

Charles managed to conceal the confusion that flashed across his  
face for a moment, and tried to look through her mind. There was no memory  
of anyone being thrown off a cliff. "Knives… guy?"  
Lorelei stared blankly at Professor X. _I thought this guy could read minds…_  
"Yeah. He made me. I vas really scared 'cause he cut off my ear and I vasn't thinking  
right and I didn't really have anywhere else to run so I just… I… just threw him."  
Charles frowned and continued "I'm not quite sure we're on the same page here.  
Why don't we start from the beginning?"

Lorelei huffed and flopped back down onto her seat. Talking to adults was so  
time consuming.  
"Alright, then." Professor X prompted "So, obviously you're related to the  
Stillmans?"  
Lorelei groaned inwardly, her entire plan was falling to pieces, no use in  
hiding that anymore.  
Professor X debated telling her he could only see parts of her mind, but  
decided that it'd be best if she had no idea how much he could actually see. _What plan?_ He wondered.

Lorelei retold her tale of woe as she took on the X-men and threw Wolverine off  
a cliff, but paused just after she watched him fall.

Professor X finally understood what she was talking about. She had attacked the  
X men when he had sent them back to Germany, and thrown "Knives Guy" off the  
cliffs edge. She was very distraught over that little fact, but he'd tell her  
later on that Wolverine was not dead. "What happened after you saw him fall?"

Lorelei paused and pulled at a split end. "I'm not sure. It vent something like  
this…"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei paled under her stony complexion. _What  
have I just done?_  
The blue guy on the ground looked up at her and grinned; "Now you've gone and  
made him mad."  
Lorelei had no idea what he was talking about. She'd just_ killed_ his _friend_, why was he smiling?  
She looked over the rocky drop again to see if he had resurfaced.  
Nothing.

"I…"

Suddenly there was a very low rumble, and the ground beneath her feet rippled.  
Lorelei looked up just in time to see the space where the group had first  
appeared almost buckle inwards, and then explode. Lorelei dug her talons into  
the ground to keep from flying off the cliff, and Blue and Scary Wide-eyes had  
been flattened to the earth. The explosion had made a large crater in the  
field, but other than that, nothing was too badly damaged.

Lorelei raised her head when the blast was over and had walked tentatively over  
to where the explosion had taken place. Wide-Eyes was unconscious, and Blue  
Monkey was holding his head up and telling him to breathe. _Let the records reflect that I did not kill that one,_ Lorelei  
thought. She was almost able to see into the crater when Garvey appeared from the side  
of the house.  
"_What_ the _bloody hell_ is going on out here?!"  
"Garvey!" I swear it wasn't me, it vas the butterblumes!"

Garvey came to a stop next Red Lenses and took in the scene. There was a  
smoldering crater, two people near the cliffs edge, and one of them looked  
quite dead. There was an unconscious man right beside him, and an animate statue  
yelling at him about God-knows-what… w_ait that's Lorelei._  
He rubbed his brow and sighed. "Ah. Well, at least ya managed to stop them…"  
If Lorelei had teeth in her beak, she would have grinned. "I know! Mama and  
Papa are going to be so-"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei bit her lip and found the cracked fingernail polish on her nails very  
interesting. Professor X waited patiently for her to continue. When she didn't, he cleared  
his throat softly. "Do you remember what happened after Garvey came out?"

Lorelei nodded and continued fiddling with her cuticles, "Ja…"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

_"Listen, Lore, we can discuss this later  
okay? We need to round them up before anything else happen-"_

"And that's when Garvey stopped talking and seemed to be choking."  
"Choking?"  
"Ja. He turned all red and scratched at his throat and made choking noises."  
"How long did this continue for?"  
"'Bout a minute. Then he fell to his knees and started crawling towards the  
edge of the cliff. He… just… stopped for a second. And that's when the second earthquake thing  
started. The ground went all wobbly; Blue poofed off with Wide-Eyes and stopped  
to get Red Lenses… then he disappeared. Then… there vas this huge explosion in  
the exact same spot as before. It looked like a bird-"  
"A bird?" Professor interrupted.  
"Ja. A bird. The explosion… ah, well, it looked like a giant fire-bird was  
inside of it. And… it exploded everywhere. Garvey got burned and he screamed  
and jumped off the cliff. I got burned too but it didn't hurt; the explosion  
lasted really long time though - I lost my footing and I fell into the river.  
Charles leaned back again. "I think I understand what happened now." _Jean_. "But how did you get here?"  
_Jean needs help_, _now_.  
"Not sure." Lorelei lied. _It's a white lie_.

Professor X nodded, he needed to check on Jean. He'd pursue this girl's story  
at a later date. "I'm going to go downstairs for a bit. You're welcome to any  
of the rooms upstairs, or you could wait for me here."  
"I'll wait." Lorelei quickly replied. _No  
way I'm exploring this place, with its serious lack of visible doors.  
_Professor smiled and nodded and wheeled to the door. "I'll be right back"  
he assured.

Lorelei watched him leave, and heard the elevator door open and shut again. She  
stayed very still for a couple minutes, then jumped up and grabbed a hold of  
the doorknob. _Ha-ha I lied!_

She threw the door open and froze when she came face to face a huge furry  
blue bear. She stayed still for a second, then slowly pushed the door closed  
again. She sat back down on her chair and stared wide-eyed at the fireplace until  
the professor returned.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X wheeled towards the elevator, "_Hank_?"  
Beast lurched out of his dream when he heard the professors' voice. He rubbed  
his face and eyes, "Ugh, yes?" He rumbled sleepily.  
_"There is a young lady in my office. Please make sure she stays there."  
_"Very well" Dr. McCoy replied. He shuffled off his bed and made his way  
down the stairs. He only had to wait three minutes until the door was suddenly  
thrown open and the young girl in question nearly ran into him. She leapt back  
at the sight of him, froze, and then quietly closed the door again.

He smiled. _Gotcha_.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

The Professor didn't even have time to enter Cerebro when the door to the hangar banged  
open. Wolverine and Scott spilled through holding a badly battered Gambit, and  
Jean came in helping Kurt walk.

"Aren't ya going ta ask what happened?" Wolverine asked.  
"I'm not sure I need to" The professor answered. "I've already got the story  
from someone else."  
Logan looked at him quizzically, but didn't bother pursuing the subject.  
Charles turned to Jean, though. "How are you feeling?"  
"I feel fine." She replied quickly.

Wolverine and Scott lifted Remy onto the gurney and gingerly set him down.  
"Where's Hank?" Scott asked.  
"If I'm not mistaken." Professor X replied, "He should still be in front of the  
office door. I'll tell him to come see to Gambit. And you too, Kurt"  
"What's he doing there?"  
"I asked him to watch over Lorelei."  
"Who?"  
"Lorelei, she showed up in the basement here. She was hiding by Cerebros door."  
"Someone broke in?"  
"It appears that way, but there is a huge time discrepancy between when she  
attacked all of you and when you returned. Unless she can teleport… but, that  
seems unlikely; she shows no indication of having that abilit-"

"Wait, wait, hold on." Scott interrupted. "Someone attacked us and then showed  
up _in the mansion?_"  
"Essentially, yes."  
"Who? Where are they now? Why haven't' you locked them u-."  
"For goodness sake, Scott, weren't you in Germany? Who attacked you there?"  
The team (minus Remy) all looked at the professor, horrified.  
"That statue turned up _here_?" Wolverine asked.  
"Yes. However, I'm not quite sure I believe all of her story; I can't fully  
comprehend how a one foot tall granite statue managed to take out the X Men."  
"One foot tall?!" Wolverine seethed, "That thing was at least five feet tall,  
taller if it stood on its back legs!"  
Kurt nodded as quickly as his reeling head allowed "Ja, it might not be the  
strongest of all the mutants in the world, but even a well-aimed pebble can  
kill a king."  
Jean gently touched Kurt's head. "You need to lie down," she insisted.

"I don't mean to question your combat prowess." Professor X backtracked, "I  
just need to get the sequence of events in place. I'm also not entirely sure  
how she even got here; I don't think she even knows."  
"Well I'll tell you what happened! This stone mutant-"  
"Lorelei. Her names Lorelei; she looks about sixteen, seventeen, has blondish hair  
and the ability to turn into a stone griffin."  
Logan's pride was a bit bruised by this point. "Some kid took out the entire  
team-?"  
"And basically killed Logan-" Scott interjected.  
"She knocked you out."  
"No, you knocked me out. You landed on my head."  
"She threw me-"  
"A seventeen year old girl threw a three hundred pound man off the side of a  
cliff-"  
"Wish I could throw you off a-"  
"Gentlemen! Now is not the time!"

Beast burst through the door at that moment and went hurriedly to Remy's  
side. "Good Lord! What on earth happened to Gambit?"  
"Gargoyle."  
"Haha, you mean gar-girl right?" Kurt laughed at his own joke.  
Dr. McCoy placed a firm hand on Nightcrawlers' shoulder, "Kurt please lie down."  
"Actually I think it was a griffin." Scott corrected Jean.  
"What's the difference?" Logan asked.  
"One's a lion-bird and the others a fancy waterspout"  
"I saw no difference."  
"I'm not surprised. You were too busy getting your ass handed to you to notice."  
"I swear to God one of these days I'm just going to-"  
"Have I talked to you about our Lord Jesu-"  
"KURT LIE DOWN."  
"I CANNOT, THE STARS ARE NOT IN ALIGNMENT!"

Dr. McCoy left Remy's side to restrain Kurt and check his head injury. "Severe concussion, and  
probably a fractured skull… Charles can you deal with him?"  
Professor X moved to Kurt's side. "I can deal with the concussion probably, but  
the fracture's all yours, doctor."  
"That's fine. I need to see to Remy." Dr. McCoy hustled everyone else out the  
door and went to work fixing Gambits broken bones.

Scott crossed his arms and looked through the little window into the lab, "Well,  
that wasn't one of our most successful missions."  
Logan snorted.

They stayed there a few more minutes before Jean got up and stretched. "I'm  
going to bed." She announced.  
"Be right there…" Scott called after her.  
"_Not if I get there first…_" Logan  
muttered.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was asleep when the professor finally returned. He chuckled when he saw  
she slept with her eyes open. _That's unhealthy_… _and a little eerie_. He stopped in  
front of her, "Lorelei?" he asked.  
She jolted awake, blinked furiously and rubbed her eyes. "Uh, ja? I didn't go  
anywhere."

"I know, thank you for being so patient. We had a couple of injuries to deal  
with that took longer than expected."  
Lorelei looked guilty at the word injuries, and Professor X noticed that she  
still hadn't connected the place she was in now with the team she had taken on – or  
the X men in general.

Charles just had one thing he wanted to figure out before he left her side  
again. "You look exhausted. Why don't we get you into bed and discuss this all later on?"  
"I'm not tired." Lorelei insisted, "I was just-"  
"Resting your eyes, I know." Professor X leveled his gaze with the girl, "But I  
think you should get some rest now"  
"Rest…?" Lorelei's eyelids felt heavy.  
"Yes. When you reawake, you'll feel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on the day."  
"Right…" Lorelei felt her head droop.  
"You'll feel much better. Sleep now."  
"'Kay."  
"Now, Lorelei."

The little voice in her head was very insistent that she fall asleep immediately.  
_Don't tell me what to do_, she fought pathetically, _I'm an adult, I do what I want…  
But sleeping is much better.  
Yeah but I'm a rebel.  
Even rebels need their sleep. How could they rebel if they're too sleepy to even lift their heads?  
Yeah… yeah.  
Sleep?  
Sleep.  
Good night.  
What?  
Shh.  
'Kay._

Professor X eyed her sleeping form, half expecting her to pop up and say "I lied." When nothing happened,  
the Professor relaxed. _Well at least she's not immune to that part_. He wondered if it would work if she was  
in griffin form, but that was a test for another day, it was almost six by this point; the rest  
of the mansion was about to wake up – and a few had already risen early.

He considered waiting until someone came down to help him take Lorelei up, but  
instead he loaded her onto his wheelchair and took her up himself. He put her next  
to Ororos' room so that she could keep an eye on her, eventually. He wasn't too  
worried about her waking up now; she was in a pretty deep sleep. He rolled out  
the room and shut the door quietly behind him.  
"Charles?" Storm passed him coming from the bathroom. "What are you doing in  
the women's wing?"  
"Just dropping off a new student." He answered.  
"You should have called for me. I would have come to help."  
"I know, Ororo, Thank you."  
"Did she show up last night?"  
"I suppose you could say that," Charles answered. "We'll get more answers later on."

Storm nodded and proceeded down the hallway, banging on the doors and telling  
everyone it was time to wake up. Rogue and Kitty were doing the same thing on  
separate levels, and the mens' wing had its own way of waking late sleepers up. Professor X  
retreated to his office to avoid the stampede to breakfast. The rest of the mansion eventually made  
its way into the kitchen and various classrooms, and the usual routine kicked in.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X occasionally checked in telepathically on the inhabitants of the  
mansion for the rest of the day. In the lab, Kurt's eyes followed the bright spot of  
light that reflected off Hanks watch and danced across the room whever Beast moved.  
Remy was still asleep, though grinning in his delirium and drugged up to the  
point of numbness. Rogue was pacing outside the lab, and Jean and Scott were  
fast asleep. Logan was uncomfortable and tossing in his sheets, and Iceman had  
just shattered an ice crystal and startled a group of first-years. Beast had tripped  
over the sack that Lorelei had emerged from, and upstairs Griffin was dreaming  
of flying.

_All's normal, then._

* * *

_Normal is subjective, just like your thoughts on reviewing *subtle hint hint wink wink*  
I LOVE YOU.  
But not... you know, creepy like.  
Someone shut me up._


	6. Time Out

Sophi: Thank you so much! I'm sort of still figuring out what she'll do. It'll come eventually XD The Kurt part sounds adorable though, I'll definitely stick that in.  
Slow Down: Noted and attempted :)

* * *

Remember, deep breath.  
Okay, I'm ready.  
Lift off using only your legs and torso; do not use your wings.  
Alright.  
Once you're in the air, find the air currents to aid you in your flight.  
Got it.  
After that, look in the direction you want to go and fly to it.  
Right.  
Then- _up_.  
What?  
_Up_.  
Fly up?  
_No, wake up_.  
Wake up?  
_Yes wake up_.  
Are you sur-  
_Lorelei wake up_.  
But-  
_Wake up_ _Lorelei_, w_ake up_ _Lorelei_, w_ake up_ _Lorel-_

"I'M UP!" Lorelei awoke with a start and sat up quickly_. Ah… I've moved again_. She glanced around the room and took in its tidiness. _This is definitely not my room_.  
_It most certainly is_.  
Lorelei shuddered at the sound of a voice in her head other than her own. _No… I have a room in my own house-_  
_In Germany with parents wanted by INTERPOL and every other conceivable police force?  
_  
Lorelei nibbled her bottom lip, and recollected that she was in an unknown place and unable to contact her parents. But that wasn't the end of it, oh-no. What really ruffled her feathers was the fact that Baldie had interrupted the most important instant of her life.

"HEY! YOU WOKE ME UP BEFORE THE GRIFFIN KING TOLD ME THE FINAL STEPS OF FLIGHT!"  
_There's no need to shout Lorelei! Everyone's asleep!  
YOU MONSTER!  
Lorelei, you've been asleep for over two days.  
I don't care! Learning to fly is not something you absorb overnight!  
Or over three, apparently.  
_  
Lorelei fumed silently and crossed her arms. _I shan't stay here._  
_Oh you most certainly shall_, the professor corrected_. I won't have another child being influenced by drugs and all other manner of vulgarity if I can help it._

_You can't help it, _Lorelei though._ And it's not your choice_.  
Professor X paused for a moment and chose his next few words very carefully. _Lorelei,_ he entreated, _you are in a crucial spot right now. You are in such a position that you may choose between a life of secrecy and imprisonment, or to start over and have a chance at a new life. Right now, the police are unaware that the Stillmans even have a daughter; if you disappear now they will be none the wiser. _

Lorelei stared angrily and the embroidered "X" rug at the foot of her bed. _I can't just leave my family, they're… my family_. _You don't abandon your family._  
_They don't seem too concerned that you've disappeared, Lorelei_.  
_Because I'm always outside; they probably haven't realized I've left yet!_

Professor X nodded to himself in his room. He knew a lost cause when he saw one, but that didn't mean he'd ever give up on it. _Lorelei_, he began, _obviously you're free to leave at any time. I won't hold you here against your will – but I implore you to think about your next course of action very carefully; it may end up being a matter of life or death_.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei continued seething in her room long after the professor left her mind and the mansion woke up. She could hear the sound of people running up and down the halls and a hellish cacophony that came from the kitchen seemingly at all hours of the day. _I hate this place. I need to get out.  
_Lorelei stretched and got off the bed. She made her way over to the window on the other side of the room and pulled back the curtains. _Oh nice…_  
The window was actually a door that lead out onto a tiny balcony. Lorelei tried the handle; _Do they leave everything unlocked in this place? Guess he meant it when he said he wasn't going to hold me here._ She walked out and suddenly felt very homesick. _There's no edge of the world here… I miss my perch_.

Lorelei grabbed the metal railing and pulled herself up. _I think I'll go on the roof; it's quieter there... maybe Baldie can't read my mind if I'm far away from him._ She reverted back into her old stone form and scaled the side of the house and heaved herself onto the roof. She dodged the bird poops and missing tiles until the came to what looked to be the front of the mansion. _This place is huge… it's way bigger that my house. _She grinned impishly, _but do they have golden doors? _

She crouched in the gutter and took in the huge garden before her. There was a group of people being led into the forest by the blue bear that stopped her yesterday. There were other smaller groups of kids milling about randomly; playing basketball or just sitting on the grass. Some of the groups had joined together and started playing football; but that was broken up when one of the kids kicked the ball at a group of girls who squealed and popped it.

Lorelei looked about, but couldn't see any gates or perimeter of any sort. _The grounds are huge, is this a school or something? An orphanage? Weird hospital… thing? What is this place? _She looked down just in time to see a white haired woman watering a spiral plant with her hand.

_What the hell…?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Jean?" The professor looked up from his pile of documents at the woman who'd just entered, "You look anxious, what's the matter?"  
"It's about the other night… in Germany."  
"Yes, I was wondering about that." He straightened the papers and pushed them into a drawer. "Do you want to talk about it? Tell me what happened."  
"I don't know," Jean frowned and sat down in one of the chairs. "It all seemed to happen so fast… and slow at the same time. When we were approaching the estate I heard someone singing, but the closer we got the more it sounded like… like…"  
"White noise?"  
Jean looked up at him. "Yes, that's exactly it. It interfered with my telepathy and made it hard for me to concentrate. I could feel myself slipping… my head was killing me."  
Professor X wheeled around his desk and stopped in front of Jean. "It's alright, Jean. Luckily no one was injured…" _Wait…_ _Garvey.  
_"Who's Garvey?"  
"Uh, gravy… Jean. I meant gravy."  
"Professor…?"  
"The gravy is burning."

Jean stared blankly at the professor, and then shook her head. "I must've lost it when the noise became unbearable. I couldn't keep it in."  
Professor X placed his hand on top of hers and patted it. "I know it's hard Jean, and I hate to sound curt but-"  
"Vat?" Kurt poofed into the room and landed on all fours next to the professor.  
"Not you, Kurt. Curt. I was being- for goodness sake, aren't you still recovering?"  
"Ja, but Beast said I could-"  
"He most certainly did not. Now please, go back to the lab and strap yourself in… and no teleporting!"

Kurt grumbled all the way down to the lab and got back into bed. He tied himself in but struggled putting the restraints on his right arm, as he had already tied up the left one. "This is impossible!" He cried.

Jean turned back to the professor. "What were you going to say?"  
Charles looked at her apologetically and spoke a bit softer than before. "We need to get you to control your outbursts more. You've been doing fine up until now, but it appears we may have an aggravator on our hands."  
"An aggravator?"  
"Yes, if Lorelei decides to stay."  
Jean looked puzzled "Why is she trying to get the phoenix aggravated? Well, besides giving the Stillmans the upper hand…"  
"She's not," the professor corrected. "She doesn't even know she's doing it. I'd have asked her to stop, but after discussing it with Hank and getting everyone's side of the story on what happened in Germany – including Lorelei's – We've come to the conclusion that it's just a byproduct of her powers."  
After Jeans look of doubt, Charles continued. "You see, Wolverine said that when he cut or stabbed her she acted as if she felt no pain. This is confirmed by Scott who destroyed one of her wings and was met with only a look of confusion. Also, Lorelei even stated she feels no pain in that form."  
"So…?"  
"It means she has no nerves or internal organs when she changes."  
"But what does that-?"  
"Lorelei is the source of the noise you've been hearing. It's a sound that only telepaths can pick up; in fact, it's not even a noise. It's the absence of a noise; she has no brain chatter… I suppose you could say it's the heads equivalent of elevator music."  
"She has no brain?"  
Professor X snorted softly. "Not when she's in her stone form, no."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Up on the roof, the stately griffin scratched its beak majestically.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"She's just a conscious rock; she wound up here because that sack we were all so enthralled with actually contained pieces of her. Thus when her original form was destroyed…"  
"She moved her consciousness to a different part of herself."  
"Precisely."  
Jean massaged her brow. "So if we hadn't taken that sack of dirt…"  
"We wouldn't even have a Lorelei." The professor finished.

Jean sat there and thought about what the professor had just told her. "But, she's still part of a criminal organization. I understand you wanting to take her in, but is it really the best idea?"  
"The authorities do not know that Lorelei exists; she could easily slip away unnoticed. She's a good kid… she just needs to get her priorities straightened out."  
Jean shook her head no, "I wouldn't trust her."  
"Well, we may not even be faced with that dilemma. She's up on the roof right now, probably deciding what to do."  
"Probably?"  
"I can't read her mind when she's transformed."  
"Wait… the white noise…"  
"It is rather annoying, but I've already managed to tune most of it out. We'll work on getting you to turn a deaf ear to its sound."  
"I can't hear it now..."  
"I'm blocking it out for you," Professor X murmured, glancing up at the ceiling.

They were silent for a minute, and Jean suddenly spoke up, "I wonder what would happen if she went up against Ms. Frost."  
"Probably the same effect, she's telepathic…"  
"I meant in her diamond form."  
"Jean…"  
"Just wondering."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei stayed on the roof, contemplating her next move and oblivious to the conversation below her. She went over what she knew so far about her current situation. She was in America; the bald one sounded American, and the kids shouting below her all seemed to have a similar accent to Baldies'. Baldie also was in possession of her sack. When she first saw him he told her that she was in his basement, so she was in Baldies' house in America.

_America_. _Didn't Garvey say something about America?_ Lorelei's shoulders slumped at the thought of her friend. _He was like an angry uncle… with drugs... Drugs! _Lorelei's ears perked up. Well, one of them; the other was still broken. _Garvey said the X-people lived in America. He said they were mutant boy-bands hit squads… they were upset with Papa because he sold the drugs to… Mitten People. Right? Right. So… _The invisible cogs in Lorelei's invisible mind were spinning out of control. _So… the X people… were the ones who broke in. They might also be the ones who stole my dandruff! So… if they took my sack… back to their base… that means that Baldie is a…_ Lorelei's mind wandered back to her bed, and the rug at the foot of it.

_Ho-ly shit NO!_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X was pulling his papers back out the drawer when Lorelei smashed through the window. "Lorel-"  
Lorelei grabbed the professor by his collar and pressed her face against his, "You kicked in my door."  
Professor X was taken a bit aback. "Yes well, you seem to have shattered my window."  
"You broke into my house…"  
"And you mine…"  
"Trashed the place!"  
"…Glass shards in my hair!"  
Lorelei paused. He had no hair. "YOU STOLE MY DANDRUFF!"  
"I WISH I WERE ABLE TO EVEN FORM IT!"  
"YOU BURNED MY HOME…!"  
"That was an accident."  
"…MADE ME SMALL…!"  
"I'm afraid I didn't plan that part eith-"  
"…BROKE MY EAR…"  
"Also not my-"  
"AND NOW I'M A MILLION MILES AWAY FROM HOME UND PAPAS GOING TO KILL ME!"

Professor X raised his hands in apologetically. "You raise very good points, Lorelei but I'm afraid-"  
"YOU SHOULD BE!"  
The professor sighed. The small griffin inches away from his face gave meaning to the saying 'if looks could kill'. "Lorelei, listen, can you do that for me for a second?"  
Lorelei frowned. _I wish I could squint; I'd be much more terrifying right now.  
_  
Professor X took her silence as an indication to keep talking.  
"I did not send the X men-"  
"I KNEW IT! YOU ARE BOY BA-"  
"For heaven's sake let me finish!" The professor cried. Everyone was interrupting him today...  
The stone creature stayed silent and he continued. "I did not send the X men to kidnap- SHH!"  
He shushed her when she opened her beak to talk. "I did not send them there with the intention of kidnapping you, or your family. We went to gather evidence of the Stillmans involvement in Michigan, so that we could confront the politicians with it and essentially shock the people into action. They've been ignoring it – people are going missing, kidnapped right in the streets – and no one's doing anything about it!  
"Not my problem."  
"But it is, Lorelei. You _are_ a Stillman, and if somebody were to find out…"  
"You said they didn't care."  
"In Michigan."  
"They won't."  
"They will find out eventually."  
"They won't."  
"And how do plan on skirting around law enforcements?"  
Lorelei inspected a stony talon.  
Professor X looked at her doubtingly, "You can't take on all of America."  
Lorelei looked up at him with one eye. "Not… _all_ of America… just the ones who know…"

Professor X leaned back in his wheelchair. He did not take kindly to people threatening his family, or the children in his school. "Lorelei, do not be fooled. The X men are not push-overs..."  
_Damn that's exactly what Garvey said. I thought this phony air confidence was working on Baldie._ Lorelei glowered at the bald man. _I wish I were taller!  
_The two continued their stare-off, and the tiny nonexistent cogs in Lorelei's head slowly began to turn again. _I wonder… _

Professor X continued watching the creature in front of him, it wasn't moving at all. _What are you doing…? _He wondered. Suddenly, it grabbed a pen and threw it across the room. Professor X scowled. "I hope that's all your temper tantrum has to offer."  
Lorelei continued to stare at Baldie, slightly amazed. _I thought you could read my mind… Let's do it again. _Lorelei looked directly at the professor's forehead and thought very hard about her next move – slashing his desk. She stayed stock-still for five seconds then…

Professor X watched incredulously as the small beast slowly gouged a hole into the wood. She then dragged the talon along the entire space of his desk. "That is enough!" The professor ordered. Lorelei continued writing.  
"ENOUGH!" Lorelei continued onward, unfazed. The professor turned his mind towards her, pushed through the white noise and forced her mentally to stop. She did.  
"Now," He ordered, "You will return to your room and stay there until I come up." Lorelei looked at him blankly, turned, hopped down from the desk, and walked through the door that had suddenly burst open.

"Professor!" Scott rushed in, almost tripping over Lorelei. "HEY! It's-"  
"Leave her." The professor answered. "She's going to her room."  
"Uh… oh?" Scott was ever so slightly confused. "What's going on here?"  
Professor X wheeled over to Scott and they both watched as Lorelei ascended the stairs to the women's wing.  
"She threatened us and scratched the table... smashed the window too."  
Scott looked over and realized where the nice breeze was coming from. "…I swear that's not the thing we battled."  
Professor X chucked. "I know. We do have good news though; I've found a way to push through Lorelei's white noise. I can... persuade her mind now."  
"You couldn't before?"  
"No…"  
Professor X wheeled over to inspect the furrows in his desk. He stopped when he saw that Lorelei had actually written something.

"Butter".

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei stopped in front of her door. Baldie couldn't actually read her mind, he was only pretending. And what was with him ordering her to her room? Did he really think she would go? Lorelei contemplated the meaning of all of it. The bald one presumed he knew what she was thinking, and thought he could boss her around. He was wrong. But he still did it… so he thought he was right?

Lorelei looked at the crack between the door and the floor and watched a little ant crawl through. _I think…_ she mused _…I know how to get back home_. 

* * *

NEVER JUDGE A ROCK BY ITS LACK OF BRAINS. Wise words from Confucius (Don't hold me to that)  
Thanks for reading! :)


	7. Time In

Locknane: *squeal* THANK YOU! I SHALL TRY NOT FAIL YOU! XD  
Sophi: Its a secret... shhh... XD  
Blueblanket121: Thank you! he's one of my favorites :)

TO THE OBLIGATORY DANGER ROOM SESSION! :D

* * *

It had taken a couple days, but eventually both the professor and Lorelei both got some things straightened out.

Professor X had realized the only reason Lorelei had stopped scratching his desk was because she was done writing – not because he had controlled her mind. He was left with a bad taste in his mouth when he realized that she was literally invisible to him in her stone form, but that problem was easily bypassed if he looked through someone else's mind who could sense her. What really bothered him was that he would never be able to know what she was doing if she ever went back to her parents.

Lorelei soon found out that the professor was not pretending to read her mind, he really could; but only if she was human-looking. Not only that, but he could _control_ her too. That was scary, how could anyone trust another person who could control them on a whim…how would they even know… if they did trust the other person, that it was them trusting the controlling guy and not the controlling guy making them trust them.  
_  
What?_

She'd given up on that brain teaser a week ago, it made her head cave in on itself. The X men had given her a week to reorientate herself, and toured her around the mansion (minus the basement). She'd met the people (_lame_) seen the classrooms (_are you fucking kidding me_) looked through the library (_I don't do books_) watched kids swim laps in the massive pool (_no thanks, I'm allergic_) and even got to touch the jet (_the only good part of this place_). But the fact that she was a prisoner in the mansion was not the end of it. It got worse.

Not only was she expected to socialize and go to school, but she'd been given a guardian too; Storm followed her everywhere during the dawn and dusk hours – the bathroom, the hallways, and sometimes even her bedroom.  
"Don't you trust me?!" Lorelei cried out when Storm wouldn't leave the bathroom.  
"Trust is something you earn," Storm had replied, "and I have been given orders to keep an eye on you."  
Thankfully, Storm usually had a class to teach for the rest of the day – so during that time Lorelei was left with her daytime warden; who had been assigned to her side for no other reason than the fact that they were both German.

~~~~~~~~One Week Earlier~~~~~~~~~

"Cerebro doesn't work?"  
"Cerebro works fine," Professor X sighed, "But it's no use amplifying your powers to get into someone's mind when that mind doesn't even exist."  
"Can't you just… force her to behave?"  
"Like I said before Kurt, it doesn't work."  
"Vat if you did it before she turned into a griffin? Control her mind when she's a human to behave while she's in her other form?"  
"That idea would work if both the griffin and human shared the same mind, but they don't because stone Lorelei doesn't have a brain. Any mind altering or general brain fiddling I do to her is instantly reversed once she changes; paralysis, memory alterations, mind control – everything."  
"How can she overcome paralysis? She's paralyzed."  
Professor X massaged his brow. It was getting hard to retell this story to everyone; maybe he should just call a meeting and explain it once and for all.  
"Because _stones_ don't have _muscles_ to paralyze, and when Lorelei switches from flesh and blood to rock she doesn't use her muscles. She just thinks about it."  
"So… put a wall around that part of her brain."  
"You want me to shut down her powers? Kurt, we're supposed to be giving her a second chance – not convicting her."  
"Well there's always that option if she ever gets out of hand…"  
Professor X looked at Kurt incredulously; he was still recovering from his head wound. The first few days he'd acted like a complete idiot, after that he was depressed, and now he just wanted to kill everyone – or at least make them suffer for_ something_.  
"Perhaps you should go talk to Hank again…"  
"Nein. I'm as fit as a fizzle."

Professor X just shook his head and turned to his now fixed window. "Kurt, I know you're still recovering, but I have a job that I think only you can handle."  
"Vat is it?"  
"I'd like you to keep an eye on Lorelei. I doubt she wants to make friends here, but she might settle down a bit easier if she had a German mentor. Similar countries aside, if she makes a break for it you can teleport her back."  
Kurt grinned. Finally, he'd get his revenge on the rocky one.

~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~

Kurt sulked. He'd never get his revenge on the rocky one.  
She was currently swinging from a light fixture, and causing mass pandemonium everywhere. Her sheets were in the corridor, there were huge gashes in the walls, vases broken, floors scorched, doors falling off their hinges, windows shattered and people with injuries ranging from bruises to broken noses. He ran a tired hand through his blue hair. _Father, give me strength_.

Lorelei was terrified. _What's with these people!? All I said was that her name sounded weird! _  
She was currently hiding in one of the chandeliers, and Jubilee was running around the house trying to find her and wring her stony neck. She was mostly just trying to get back at Lorelei for pushing Wolverine off a cliff, but when she had told Jubilee her name sounded odd, it pushed her over the edge.

Haha. Edge.

But seriously, the mansions falling apart.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Jubilee broke through her fourth wall (on accident this time) and finally caught a glimpse of a stony tail dangling from one of the lights. _You're mine_.

Lorelei thought she was safe. The crazy yellow-jacketed girl seemed mostly harmless with her gum snapping and little firecrackers, but Lorelei refused to lose another part of her body. _My ear, _she griped inwardly. And that's when a firecracker hit her in the ass.

"MOTHER OF GOD!" Again, no pain, _but it's so weird feeling an impact… without feeling an impact. _Lorelei crashed down to the hardwood floor and hit the ground running. _These people are mad! _She took off running without really thinking about where she was going. _Was the kitchen left or right after the Washington bust? Right. Let's go right_.

Wrong.

_BOYS ROOMS THAT'S THE BOYS WING!_ She tried to shut her eyes and shook her head to get rid of Iceman in his angry Frosty the Snowman boxers. _When I get home, those will be the first things I get Papa to destroy. _But now Lorelei was trapped, and with Jubilee barreling towards her and another wall in front of her, she was a rock stuck between a soft and a semi-hard place. _I feel like those idioms don't' work anymore_.

Lorelei skidded to a halt and looked over her shoulder to the angry kid about five seconds away from kicking her ass. _Vat is this. I'm a Stillman… I DESTROY MY FOES!_ She spun around to face her adversary, stood on her back legs, and leapt at Jubilee with her talons out.  
"Nope." Kurt intervened and teleported Lorelei away just before she could scratch Jubilees face.  
"AH! VAT?!" Lorelei suddenly dropped onto the roof. "Vat vas that?!"  
"Me." Kurt dropped down in front of her.  
Lorelei looked at Blue-y. She hadn't seen him since she'd rearranged his face in Germany. He looked better now. "You're still blue though. You should work on that."  
"Ja. I'll try."

They scrutinized each other, each one trying to figure out if the other was going to make any sudden movements. Kurt was the first to act. "Professor wants to see you."  
Lorelei watched him. "Nein."  
"Vat do you mean nein? He said so."  
"Professor is a clown."  
"Professor X is not a clown!"  
"Is."  
"Is no- gah, we're talking to Professor X!" Kurt grabbed the cat sized griffin before it could attack him or run away and poofed into the professors' office where he deposited her unceremoniously on her ass.

"Lorelei!" Xavier exclaimed, "I was hoping you'd drop in!"  
"JA YOU'RE ALL REAL FUNNY VITH YOUR PUNS!"  
Professor X grinned. "Ignoring the fact that you've broken a good portion of the mans-"  
"That crazy yellow dummkopf did it too!"  
"Lorelei I understand that you're unhappy, but breaking things and hurting people is unacceptable."  
"She really does have a dumb name." Lorelei mumbled.  
"That aside," he continued, "we need to find you a hobby. You've been stuck inside the mansion for over a week now – maybe that's why you're so on edge?"  
Lorelei picked angrily at a loose string in the carpet. "You could just let me go home."  
"Lorelei – I will certainly release you, but I won't give you transportation back. You'll have to find your own way back to Germany."  
"Dummkopf." She mumbled.  
"Pardon?"  
Lorelei looked up at him and grinned. "Read my mind and figure it out," she goaded.

Professor X sighed. Lorelei was not happy in the mansion – she made a point of letting everyone know that each and every day. Sometimes she'd even straight up _tell _people she didn't like it. Like yesterday when she and Piotr were sharing a couch watching reruns of Supernanny. They were just sitting there tolerating each other when she'd suddenly looked over at him, stated she hated him and the mansion, flipped over the popcorn bowl and left. Colossus had been very distraught.  
"I don't even know what I did wrong!" he'd lamented.

_ She needs a hobby_.

Professor X looked down upon the small griffin. "Lorelei," he started, "I'll make you a deal."  
Lorelei snorted. "Vat?"  
"If you can find a way to get along even slightly with the rest of the inhabitants of this house…"  
Lorelei rolled her eyes. _Yeah right_.  
"…I will find a way to get you back to your original size."  
Lorelei stared at him. _How did he know I can't figure out how to get bigger?  
_"Naturally, I figured you weren't able to do it yourself because you haven't done it yet."  
"…I thought you couldn't read my mind."  
Professor X was surprised; he was hoping she wouldn't figure out that bit for a little while longer. "Yes, well… How's that deal sound?"  
"You can't seriously expect me to spontaneously like everyone. How about…" Lorelei thought a bit harder, "I don't break things on purpose and punch people?"  
"Okay… but I think you can do better. Let's make it that you're at least neutral to everyone and don't punch people."  
"How about I just hate everyone but don't break anything at all?"  
"How about ve put her and Wolverine in a cage and hold a death match – the vinner gets to live. Because let's face it because both of them hate everything but Logan breaks thi-"  
"Kurt there will be no death matches."  
"Mansion population contro-"  
"No, Kurt."  
"We could lock her in the danger room."

Professor X glared at Kurt, but then let up. "Actually, that's a very good idea Mr. Wagner."  
"Uh… it is?"  
"Danger room?" Lorelei's lone ear perked up, "That sounds dangerous."  
"Oh, it can be." Professor X turned to the little griffin. "But you're much too small to go inside."  
"Oh good," Lorelei sighed. "I'm allergic to danger you know, and wat-" She stopped before she blurted out her water weakness.  
"Pardon?"  
"And… vatever!" She huffed and pretended to be annoyed.  
Professor X smiled. "Would you like to see it?"  
"No."  
"I think you'd like it; you can vent your anger in a controlled environment. I'm told it relieves stress very well," He grinned. "One out of one Wolverine's like it… so that's saying something."

Lorelei turned her head away and looked over the old grandfather clock in the corner of the room. It had stopped ticking. She looked back at the professor out the corner of her eye and scrutinized his face. _What's the old one playing at? Is this some type of passive aggressive way of getting back at me for ruining the house? What's a danger room? Will it get me back home?_

Eventually, Lorelei's curiosity won. "Alright… I vant to see vat the danger room is."  
"Wonderful," Professor X wheeled his chair around his table to her side. "You may use it on one condition."  
_Here it comes_, Lorelei thought.  
"You are not allowed to hit anyone outside of the danger room, unless it hits first – and even then you must not injure them greatly."  
"Vat about the getting me back to my normal size part?"  
"We'll do this one step at a time. Maybe you'll come to like us on your own, hmm?"  
_Doubt it. _"Can I still break things?"  
Professor X sighed. "No, Lorelei, you cannot."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X and Lorelei stopped in front of a large window in the basement.

"So… vere is this danger room?"  
"On the other side of that window… It's currently in use – would you like to see what's going on inside?"  
"Uh… sure?"  
Professor X tapped at a random button on the console below the window and the glass became transparent. "We use that part for privacy – because sometimes people really do just use this place for life size replicas of certain people. Like I said, Logan says it relieves stress, and I'd rather him hit a robot of Scott than the real Scott."  
Lorelei didn't know the two hated each other so much, but she stored that bit of information away in case she ever needed to use it.

Professor X leaned into the microphone to talk to the people inside. "Hank, Logan… are you two leading this session?"  
There was a slight pause and a couple of explosions until Lorelei and the professor heard Hanks voice. "Yes- OUCH! Cover me someone! Why? *grunt* is there something you need?"  
"No, no. Finish up your-"  
"NO!" Iceman screamed, slammed into the window and slowly squealed down. "Let me out…"  
"Drake? What on earth-?"  
"Logan won't let us out. He says…" He shuddered "it's …bonding time. BONDING TIME! WE'VE BEEN IN HERE FOR TWO HOURS!"

Lorelei watched in horror as Iceman was dragged back into the fray kicking and screaming by a long metallic arm. "Oh…"  
"Don't worry," the professor soothed, "We'll put you on the beginner levels."  
"Oh…?" Lorelei couldn't even form any rational thought while looking at the mayhem before her. _They do this for FUN?!_

They stayed there for another five minutes until Colossus accidentally threw a chunk of rock through the window. Iceman then tried to make a break for it through the shattered opening, but was once again dragged back by the robotic arm. Dirt and debris constantly settled on the other side of that wall thanks to the gap, and once a laser beam even made it through. Kitty was actually thrown right through it, and in that short space of time it seemed the only thing that _didn't_ fly through the window was another window.

"I take it back. I don't vant to go inside the danger room."  
"You'll enjoy it once you're inside, beginner levels are quite easy. Usually you only have one to three opponents, or you can hove one to three robotic opponents."  
"Isn't everything a robot?"  
"Yes, but we also have robots that display certain mutants powers. You can choose to go up against Scott or Storm or anyone else in a safe, controlled environment."  
"Safe? Controlled? _PEOPLE ARE FLYING OUT THE WINDOW!"  
_"Yes," Professor X peered down the hallway at the window in question. "That hasn't happened before…"

Eventually Hank and Logan called it a day, and all the mayhem that had happened inside disappeared. The downtown area they'd been fighting in just disappeared and all the broken robots and smashed cannons were pulled underground.

"Well looks like I can't go in, all the guns are gone." Lorelei turned to leave, but the door was blocked by Blue Bear.  
Dr. McCoy laughed. "Oh no, dear Lorelei, we have plenty more where those came from. All the broken bits are being repaired by Forge right now. And there are backups. We have enough guns to keep going for at least fifty beginner levels, or thirty intermediate levels. Or ten difficult levels, or two Logan levels… or eighty nine adventure levels… or sixty two nature walks… or…"

Lorelei faded out the crazy bear with his ramblings and tried to look for the most discreet place to hide. There was none. And all the people that were in the danger room had now spilled out into the hallway (minus Bobby) who had taken off running and screaming that he was never coming back.

"Well Lorelei," Professor X motioned towards the door. "The rooms all cleaned up. Just step inside and we'll take it from there."  
"Uh… I don't think I want to anymore."  
"You are sending little bird into danger room?" Colossus asked.  
"Yes Piotr. I think she'll do quite well."  
"Nein."  
"Kid'll get ripped to shreds." Logan crossed his arms and smiled. He seemed happy with the notion.  
"Nein."  
"Don't worry," Hank took a break from counting all the different danger room levels he could use before it ran out of firepower. "We'll be watching you from here. If anything goes wrong we'll stop the program."  
"Neiiiinnn!"  
"I will show the way." Colossus picked Lorelei up by the waist and set her gently down on the other side of the door. "Is good character builder," He said before the door sealed itself.

"I don't vant to die!" Lorelei banged on the window that had been fixed from the last session.  
"You won't," Professor X said over the microphone. "We'll be watching from here. Just pay attention to what's going on and stay upright for five minutes. Then the door will open and you can come out." He fiddled with one of the buttons on the console and looked back to her. "We'll put you on a beginner level. You'll have one ceiling turret, one X man and one floor turret."  
"Vat is a turret?!"  
"Like a cannon."  
"A vat?"  
Professor X projected a picture of a turret into her mind, and watched as Lorelei tried to break the window with renewed vigor.  
"YOU GUYS VANT TO KILL ME!"  
"Lorelei pay atten-"

Lorelei felt the air around her become heavy and managed to fall onto her ass just before a laser almost took her head clean off.  
"HOLY SHI-"  
"MOVE, Lorelei! Take out the turrets first!"  
Lorelei screamed like a maniac and ran in the opposite direction of the floor turret.

"Why hasn't she changed into her griffin form?" Bobby asked.  
"Hey you came back!" Kitty punched him playfully on the shoulder.  
"Yeah. I wanted to see how quickly she could smoke this course."  
Colossus turned to the window then back to Bobby. "Ah… smoke?"  
"Yeah. She took out the X men; this should be a piece of caaa…" He trailed off when he saw Wolverines death glare.  
"Oh, she's smoking it all right." He grinned.  
They turned back to the window right as Lorelei tripped over her own two feet for the second time.

She slammed back down to the ground just as the turret fired at her again. She covered her head and curled into a little ball. _Happy thoughts… happy thoughts… _Her happy thoughts weren't helping. The turret nicked her sneaker and the smell of burning rubber invaded her nostrils.  
_Get up! _Professor X shouted in her mind.  
_'Kay_. She stayed in her ball.  
_Lorelei you need to move.  
The Griffin King says it's hazardous to my health.  
You won't even have a life if you don't get up and go.  
I thought you said you wouldn't kill me!_

Professor X sighed. "I should end this course."  
"Oh come on!" Bobby whined. "You never stopped it my first time! I still have the scar!"  
"Yes well… look at her."  
Lorelei was currently running in circles and tripping trying to put the fire out on her sneaker.  
"It's just because she doesn't know what to do."  
"I've told her. She refuses to listen."  
Hank took a hold of the microphone. "Lorelei, listen to me. I'm a doctor."  
Lorelei threw the offending sneaker across the room and screamed at it.  
"Listen Lorelei, you have to take out that turret on the floor. If you don't, you'll soon have two to deal with. And if you don't take out that one you'll have two turrets _and_ an X man to deal with."  
Lorelei looked up at the window. Blue Bear was yelling about turrets and X men. _Is he still going on about how many sessions he can get through?  
_"Take it out fast."

Lorelei looked over at the creepy looking turret. It was aiming for her again. She groaned. _But I'm allergic to danger_. There was a whirring noise above her and she saw a second turret coming out of the ceiling and slowly taking aim as well. _And now_ _I'm screwed. _She ran away from the ceiling turret and it followed her fleeing form. There was nowhere else to run, she'd hit a wall. The only other way to go was back at the floor turret. Somewhere, in her unhinged mind she formed an unstable and stupid plan. She spun and got the floor turret in the middle of her vision. _I shall destroy you… USING YOUR METALLIC BROTHER!_

She war cried at the doomed floor turret and leapt into her griffin form. Lorelei tore down the length of the room as fast as she could and launched herself at the turret. _Oh. It's stronger than it looks._ She clung to its metallic body and waited for the ceiling turret to shoot. It didn't.  
"Lorelei that's the oldest trick in the book!" Bobby yelled from the observation window.  
"I THOUGHT IT VOULD WORK!" She screamed. _Fuck.  
_Plan B then. She grabbed a hold of the turrets support and its wires and ripped them from its gun. In it's now free range, it spun around and took aim right at her head, and fired point blank.

"Oh…" Bobby and Kitty murmured in unison.  
"Stop the program!" Professor X called to Hank.  
Hank jabbed at a button and the ceiling turret went back into its hole, and the floor turret deactivated.  
The group entered the room and circled around the stone griffin.  
"She's still standing…" Bobby observed. "Without a… head."  
"Lorelei?" Professor X asked. "Can you hear me?"  
Piotr poked Lorelei's shoulder. "Is dead?" he asked.  
"Lorelei?"

Lorelei stayed where she was. She couldn't see anything, or hear anything for that matter. She tried moving. She couldn't tell if she was or not.  
The small group of people huddled around the statue watched in morbid fascination as it moved one of its legs and twitched its tail.  
"Well. She's not dead."  
"She looks like a chicken with its head cut off!" Bobby died from laughter.  
"Stop it you idiot!" Kitty smacked him on the head.  
"Hank?" Professor X asked.  
"Yes?"  
"I think she needs more dirt."  
"Hm. It must be special dirt because she hasn't used any from outside."  
"Is there any left over from her brown bag?"  
"There should be. I'll get an analysis and try to reproduce it."  
"Great." Professor X turned to Colossus. "Piotr can you carry her to Hanks lab for me please?"  
"I will carry little bird." Colossus picked Lorelei up gently and trailed after Dr. McCoy.

The rest of the group watched as the headless griffin retreated from their sight.  
"…I swear that's not the thing we fought." Wolverine said.  
"So I've heard." Professor X murmured.  
"… That could've gone better." Bobby crossed his arms. "She need's practice. And she needs to stop running and dodging."  
"There's nothing wrong with running and dodging!" Kitty shouted.  
Iceman turned. "Wait, that's not what I meant Kitty."  
"Butt!" She wailed and left the room.  
"Smooth." Wolverine offered helpfully.  
"Nah what do you know about smooth?" Iceman waved Logan off and left the danger room in search of Kitty.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei felt herself being set down on something metal. Someone had carried her to wherever she was now. _They're going to kill me. _She thought back the stupid turret that took off her head. _I shouldn't have put four senses in my head. I should have scattered them. Well… sight could stay there. But what if I smelled with my feet? LIKE A BUTTERFLY! Or heard things with my wings? LIKE A… _she tried to think of something that picked up noises with its wings. …_NOTHING! And tasted things with… ah. My tail? No that's stupid._

She felt something scrape her side and tried to scratch at it. _I think I just fell over._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Dr. McCoy tried to take a sample of from Lorelei's wing, but she tried to hit him and fell off the table. Kurt poofed in at that moment.  
"Nightcrawler… you need something?"  
"Nein. Professor X told me to go to the lab and watch Lorelei to make sure she didn't run away."  
"Well, her heads missing, so that's not possible."  
"Vat?"  
"She's on the other side of that table."

Kurt hopped on top of the metal table and peered over the other side. A headless griffin was tottering around like a drunkard and slamming into cupboards.  
"Vat happened? Did she make Wolverine mad?"  
"No. She got her head blasted off in the danger room."  
"Ouch."  
"Mmm. Not one of the most successful danger room sessions."  
"I expected her to do vell, seeing as how she can run around quite quickly."  
"Well, she did do well in the respect…"

Hank went over to the staggering statue and dumped some sand onto her neck. He and Kurt watched in amazement as absolutely shit-all happened.

"Well. Back to the drawing board then."  
"Tell me ven something interesting happens."  
"Will do."

* * *

Will Lorelei get her head back? Will Bobby ever make Kitty feel better? Will the danger room ever recover from griffins LACK OF EPICOSITY?! find out next... whenever... to... find out. I guess.

Thanks for reading tho!


	8. It's A Rough Day

I'm trying to see how long I can keep these time related chapter names going. I'm running out of ideas that make some sense as to what's going on in that particular chapter. Sigh. But anyways, I think I figured out how the story is going to end now. So... lets start going in that vague and general direction.

***EDIT*** Sophi: Oh man, thank you so much. I thought I had included that in this chapter, but it must've been in the one I scrapped. I forgot to put that part back in. But she's normal size whenever she switches between the two forms, it's only the griffins height that's affected. My only reasoning for that is that Lorelei's not made of stone when she's human. Thanks for catching my slip-up though! I fixed the chapter up, it should make a little more sense now. A little. Like... very...very... just. Small. Just very, very small. XD

* * *

Ernest Stillman walked down the hall with his hands clasped behind his back, taking in the large portraits that lined the red colored wall. _She's late_. Lorelei was supposed to give him her report three days ago. She hadn't even come in to eat. _What could she possibly be up to? There's no way she'd sit still for over a week._

He had left in search of someone to help him fix his telepathy shield just a little while after Lorelei went back to her perch. He'd been gone just over two weeks, and was now waiting for his wife and daughter in the parlor. Mrs. Stillman was the first to arrive.  
"About time you came back you deadbeat," She greeted him.  
"I've missed you too, Ava."  
"Your daughters missing."  
_Oh. Well then.  
__"_Missing? How? Why? Where did she go?"  
"Well if I knew that she wouldn't be missing, would she?"  
Mr. Stillman looked over his wife. She didn't seem to be pulling his leg. Not that she lied a lot, she was usually very blunt. _And rude, and sarcastic, and foul-tempered. And… pretty_. He got up from the chair and went over to his wife.  
"You should follow her example." Mrs. Stillman hissed.  
"And leave my beautiful bird?" Mr. Stillman asked in mock horror.  
"I hate you."  
Ernest chuckled softly. "I know." He pushed a stray piece of brown hair behind her ear. "We should find her. When did she go missing?"  
"Ha, that's your baby. You go look for it." Mrs. Stillman waved her husband off and made her way over to the bookshelf passage. She turned just before she went down, "Garvey's dead too, though. If you're really serious about finding your daughter, go start in the backyard."

Mr. Stillman watched her walk down the stairs and felt a knot form at the bottom of his stomach. _Did the X men actually attack_?

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei sat very still. There were a couple of claws pressed up against her neck, and she'd hate to lose an artery. Not that she had any. Hank was still fixing her head.  
"How much longer s'this gonna take?" Logan growled.  
"No much longer…" Dr. McCoy trailed off.  
"You said that three hours ago! My arms are startin' ta ache!"  
"Take it easy Wolverine. I think I've almost got it."  
"You _think_?!"  
"Hey guys!" Kitty called from the open door.  
"WHAT?" Logan shouted.  
Kitty nibbled nonchalantly at the juicebox straw she had in her mouth. "Prof wants to know how it's going."  
"FUCKING FANTASTIC!"  
"Swimmingly!"  
"'Kay. I'll pass that along. Oh. Wait, Professor wanted me to give you this..." Kitty walked over to one of the counters and placed a little brown baggie next to a microscope.  
"Thank you Kitty. I'll get to… whatever that is. What is it?"  
"Dunno, Professor had it in his drawer." Kitty waved and skipped out, "See you guys later!"

Dr. McCoy continued fiddling around with different materials, trying to find the right ratio of elements in Lorelei's body; but each time he made a new sample Lorelei's stone form refused to take it. After several hours and fourteen coffee breaks he gave up, perplexed, and told Wolverine he could leave.

"Finally." Logan stretched out his arms and sheathed his claws. "What the hell was that for anyways?"  
"I've noticed that Lorelei's body reacts strangely to your adamantium claws. Instead of a clean cut like most other substances make, your claws seem to make the wound harden up… almost like a scab. On the other hand, water appears to corrode her body at an accelerated rate… a bit like acid."  
"Great. Now we know her weakness."  
"Except the scab part. The tip of her broken ear doesn't corrode." Dr. McCoy placed a drop of water on Lorelei's broken ear, and another one on her claws. She jumped up and lashed out blindly in Beasts general direction when she felt a piece of her claw disappear.  
"Don't worry Lorelei, I'll fix your foot when I find some sand for you."  
"She can't hear you."  
"It's more for me; you have to think positively!"  
Logan groaned and had to keep himself from facepalming. "So why the hell did you make me stay down here and scratch her neck? To make her invincible?"  
"No. the adamantium rearranges the makeup of her… oh forget it. It's a science thing."  
"Fair enough."

Kurt popped in, "Did something interesting happen?"  
"We found Lorelei's weakness and her strength!" McCoy announced excitedly.  
"No that's lame." Kurt turned and teleported away again.  
"Well I think it's exciting." Beast mumbled.  
Logan clapped him on the back. "You're the only one. Now I'm gonna make like Kurt and get the hell outta here."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Stillman stopped next the broken angel fountain in his backyard and took in the chaos. The entire back of the estate was charred, and part of the first floor was exposed due to the fact that there was a large portion of wall missing. There was a crater in the wildflower field; the backdoor had claw marks on it that were not Lorelei's, and the forest was nothing but tree trunks and crispy squirrel bits. Most frightening of all, the ledge above the door was grotesquely griffinless.

But Mr. Stillman knew his daughter, and he knew the X men. The X men were not as ruthless as some of his associates made them out to be – they wouldn't harm a child; they would pacify it. Lorelei was just a kid who would run away scared shitless when up against something more powerful than she. They wouldn't hurt her. She must've run away... or they took her with them.

Ernest scowled. _I ask her to guard the place and what does she do? Gets herself kidnapped_. He turned and hurried back into the house. _This might be a good time to see how well those drugs in States are going…. Isn't there only a lake between Michigan and New York? X men are in New York, right?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei didn't hear Beast when he told her to stay in the lab. He didn't expect her to leave, and was mostly just talking to her just to ease the silence. Dr. McCoy eventually went off to bed though, leaving Lorelei spread-eagled on the tiled floor. _Fucking bored_… she groaned. She wasn't sure if she could transform back into her human form. She could feel the little switch at the back of her mind, but didn't want to hit it. _What if I come out the other side without a head? Then what?_ She wasn't missing an ear in human form from when Logan chopped it off when she was a griffin; but heads are something completely different. _I don't have my senses this time… what if I lose my head as a human? I should stay like this. Better safe than sorry._

But that didn't solve her bored problem._ There must be _something_ fun to do without a head. Maybe I'll go… uh… trip people… Or something. What time is it?_ Lorelei shuffled about the edge of the room and eventually found the lab door. It opened without a protest when she leaned against it, and she fell into the hallway. _No one saw that… now where's the elevator?_

After much internal huffing and angst-ing, she eventually collapsed at the top of the flight of stairs. It had taken her the better part of an hour to find the hidden doors, and even longer to walk up the stairs. _Screw the elevator. I'm burning calories this way._ Lorelei thought back to her danger room episode earlier that had made her collapse like she did now. _Baldie definitely did that danger room stunt on purpose. He's probably trying to make me totally dependent on the X Men! Next thing you know I'll be eating out of Blue Monkeys hand like a COMMON PIGEON! _

She blindly slammed into the Washington bust and an age old question popped into her head. _If a Washington bust falls over in a hallway and Lorelei can't hear it… does it make a sound? _Apparently it did, because she soon felt someone picking her up again and carrying her somewhere –probably downstairs again. _UNHAND ME HEATHEN!_ She shrieked with her mind.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Jean woke up. She wasn't sure what woke her up, but she was wide awake now. She looked over at the clock; it was only one in the morning. She rubbed her eyes and sat up and listened. _If it was a noise_, she reasoned, _Logan would have gone to investigate by now_. She listened closely, but couldn't hear anyone, or anything. She turned to Scott and considered waking him up, but thought better of it.

The wooden steps felt cool under her bare feet, and she tried to stifle a yawn as she reached the foot of the stairs. Jean peered down the main corroder and wondered what woke her up. Her eyes came to a rest on what looked like a broken vase; a broken vase that was flopping around like a fish out of water. _Griffin_, she sighed. She walked over to the little lion-bird that had a piece of Washington's forehead and right eye jammed over her neck.  
"Agh. Hold still Lorelei, let me get this thing off you." Jean grabbed a hold of the porcelain and pulled it out of Lorelei's neck. _There_, she sighed, _now back downstai-_

Jean froze as a familiar wailing sound filled her ears. It started out like a faint singing, then howling. She was gripped with fear as the static noise rose quickly, surrounded and smothered her mind. It wanted her to let go. It was screaming for her to let go. She had to let go.

_Unhand me_.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Goddamn kids." Logan snarled.

He ripped the sheets (literally) off of him and threw open the door, banging it against the wall.  
"Hey!" Kurt teleported in front of Logan, "I vasn't sleeping, but if I vas that totally vould of woken me up!"  
"Great." Logan shoved him out the way and went for the stairwell.  
"Are you getting ice cream? I vould like ice cream too right now." Kurt trailed after Wolverine and hoped there was still death by chocolate in the freezer.  
"I'm not getting no goddamn ice cream!" Logan snarled. "There's someone downstairs."  
"I hope they're not eating my ice cream…"  
"Shut up 'bout that for a second, there might be trouble."  
"Oh."

Nightcrawler and Wolverine made their way downstairs, and noticed Jean hunched over at the end of the hallway.  
"Jean?" Logan asked. She didn't respond.  
"Vat are you doing on the ground?"  
No response. Jean just sat there, staring at whatever was in her lap.  
Logan took a half step towards her. "Jean…? Are you-"  
Jean looked up, and the two men took an unconscious step back at the gleam in her eye.  
"Shit… ELF!"  
Kurt was two steps ahead of Logan, and grabbed a hold of Jean and teleported her once outside the mansion, twice into the forest, and thrice – dropped her over a lake. He managed to teleport away just before the blast could singe his beloved tail.

Logan took the steps four at a time and barreled into the professors' room, accidentally ripping the wood off its hinges at the bottom. "Fuck these useless entryways, JEANS TURNED PHOENIX!" Professor X was already sitting upright, with a pained look on his face. "I can feel it. Where's Lorelei?"  
"That's not the problem right now!"  
"It is if Kurt teleported Jean while she was holding her!"  
You could almost hear the click in Logan's head as he connected Jean's sitting position with the fact that she was looking at something. "FUCK!"

Kurt poofed into the Professors' room. "Jean is-"  
"I know. Take me to where you dropped her."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

For the second time in her short span of life, Lorelei drowned. It was very painful, all this dying. Her last thoughts were of home, psychedelic blue monkeys, and her flower that was probably dead by now.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X, Kurt, Logan, and most of the mansion spent the rest of the day looking for Lorelei. Jean was back in her room, both her headache and the Phoenix had disappeared the instant she hit the water. She fell asleep once Kurt had pulled her from the lake, and showed no signs of waking up anytime soon.

It was almost nightfall again when Beast approached the Professor, weary and downhearted.  
"I fear," He started, "We've lost our little griffin."  
Colossus lifted a massive bolder and howled under it for Little Bird to stop hiding.  
Professor X watched the sad scene unfold in front of him. Lorelei hadn't cared much for them, but most of the mansion had grown accustomed to her stony indifference and silly antics.  
"It must have been the water."  
"Kurt's really beating himself up over this." Dr. McCoy looked over to Nightcrawler, who was teleporting water from one side of the lake to the other. He seemed to be trying to get to the lakebed to make sure if Lorelei wasn't stuck between two rocks.  
Professor X sighed. "Let's call it a night. We can come back tomorrow."

The X men left the forest with students in tow and made their way back to the institute. The giant house seemed somehow less welcoming without the knowledge that there was a headless griffin in the wings to make their days a little brighter, and slightly stonier.

* * *

Right, well, I have to take a break now. Y'know... School and all. But I'll still update this thing seeing as I HAVE NO LIFE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL. Buuuut whatever XD

Thanks for reading (and reviewing to catch my mistakes.)


	9. Rockin' Good Times

Angi Marie: Thank you so much! I'm glad it's legible! :D  
Sophi: soon. ;)

*Warning* I reread this chapter a bajillion times and I can't get it any less boring. But griffins gotta do what griffins gotta do... so... bear with me :)  
Thanks for reading!

* * *

Professor X and Dr. McCoy sat across from each other, staring intently at the little baggie that Kitty had brought down to the lab just a day ago. It stayed there on the table,  
Motionless.  
Oblivious.  
Sinister.  
Wicked.  
It was possibly the most diabolical and abhorrent thing to ever exist on this planet. It was so ugly and brown; it was so nonchalantly evil that just looking at it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It was so horrendously vile, that on a scale of one to rotten it was at least a seven.

"This brown bag," Dr. McCoy spoke loathingly, "Is possibly the foulest thing I've ever laid my eyes upon."  
Professor X lifted his gaze to Dr. McCoy's furry face. It had worry lines etched into it, and made Hank look much too old. "We must dispose of it quickly." He told his friend.  
Dr. McCoy nodded, alarmed. "What of the children?"  
"We mustn't frighten them, we-"  
"Hey… Hey guys." Bobby's head slowly rose over the side of the desk, and stopped when he was eye level with the little bag. "Guys… hey. Hey guys. He-"  
"ROBERT! What are you doi-"  
"Guys. Hey. I was just passing by and… well. Ahaha… *ahem* well… I was just wondering…"  
"Robert Drake, you leave this instant!"  
"I was wondering if that was cra-"  
"GET. OUT."  
"Can I touch it?"  
"DRAKE!"  
"Just a tiny tou-"  
"Drake you will leave this instant or you will be grounded for a week!"  
"FINE!" Iceman stood up abruptly and left, kicking over a trashcan on his way out.

"…The mansion has already begun its descent into chaos." Beast whispered, ominously.  
"I fear for our very lives." Professor X murmured.  
"Remy fears for whoever does da laundry dis week, I got jam all over my suit."  
Professor X looked over to Gambit, who had squeezed a jelly donut just a bit too hard and made some filling dribble out the back end. "…We're not going to make it out of this alive."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Stillman slammed the phone down. "Goddamn _Americans_."  
"Trouble in paradise?" Ava Stillman asked disinterestedly, picking at her crochet blanket.  
"No, just Michigan."  
"Drugs not working out?"  
"Yes… and no. I asked someone to send a little shipment over to New York but-"  
"Are you _stupid_?" Ava looked up, furious. "The drug isn't ready. Garvey didn't finish it, we don't even know if it works. You've moved before we've set up the second attack!"  
"It does work, dear." Ernest retorted. "They were drawn to water and-"  
"It doesn't matter," she hissed, "We don't know if it'll work on _all_ mutants. What if there's a mutant in New York who's immune to its effects? The X men will know we sent it! They'll come after us and we have no way of even defending ourselves! Lorelei's gone, your stupid head machine is gone, Garvey is dead, people are bailing out on us-"  
"Ah, yes my love," Mr. Stillman grinned mischievously, "I do have some good news in that respect; I've made a new friend in the States. Some magnet guy, he has a-"  
"Is he a mutant?"  
"…Yes."  
Mrs. Stillman stared at her husband, astonished. "You _dumbass_..."

Mr. Stillman sighed and hung his head. He was in a bit of a pinch, and was looking for any way out. This Magnet… Magnet-o… whatever; he said he could get the drug to the X men no problem, 'you won't have to worry about a thing', he'd said. Mr. Stillman covered his head with his hands and rubbed his face tiredly. He didn't have the heart to tell his wife that he hadn't even sent a live version of the drug to the X men; he'd given Magnet-o a placebo in the hopes that – if Lorelei was indeed kidnapped – she would eventually catch wind that the Stillmans had sent the drug to the X men. Maybe she'd realize that they were looking for her; that they weren't afraid of attacking the X men to get their daughter back.

Well, Ernest Stillman wanted her back; she was their only external alarm system. "Little Siren" he had called her when he'd first heard her wail when they were attacked once. She'd screamed so loudly that the cliff outside retained her echo for a couple of days after. She wasn't able to scream that deafeningly again, but the name stuck – especially since she was named after a siren. Who… had a cliff named after her.  
_It's cute, _Mrs. Stillman insisted when the girl was born.  
Mr. Stillman smiled sadly. _Well it certainly was an apt name… it still is if she's alive._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Now Kitty, I want you to tell me exactly what happened."  
"I've already told you guys," she whined, "Professor was in his office and called me in. He gave me the bag and told me to give it to you."  
Beast looked over to the professor, who shook his head. "I didn't give you anything yesterday. In fact, I didn't see you at all."  
"Well that's what happened."  
"It was definitely Kitty," Logan cut in, "I woulda smelled it if she wasn't."  
"So someone impersonated the Professor…" Beast mused.  
"Someone?" Logan snorted. "Don't beat around the bush – it was Mystique."  
"We don't know that for sure-"  
"We do."

Professor X stayed quiet, contemplating the baggie. It had Stillman written all over it. Literally, the name Stillman was engraved in gold lettering on the side. "Hank you ran an analysis on this didn't you?"  
"Yes. It's all feldspar, quartz and mica."  
"In English, please." Logan growled.  
Doctor McCoy sighed. "It's sand and granite. No new drug."  
Professor X nodded to himself. "He's threatening us then."  
"Stillman is?" Beast asked.  
"That's my guess."  
Remy looked up from the jam mess on his chest. "It's a pretty bold move don't you think? Even for Stillman."

"What's their motive?" Dr. McCoy wondered. "What are they getting out of all of this… besides the ear of a couple governors and the death of innocent bystanders?"  
"As of right now; nothing but amusement… unless this whole thing goes deeper than it seems."  
"It usually does…" Scott muttered from the door

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei peeked out from the metal cave she was hiding in. _I swear to God if I die again I'm going to kill my biographer_. She clawed her way up the side of what looked like a giant fridge. _At least I have my head back… no sign of my freaking ear though._ She grunted and pulled her griffin-y form over the side of the freezer and stood atop it. Nice view from up here-"

_"_Oh God."_  
This isn't a fridge._  
_This is a fucking toaster._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Forge rummaged through his box of nuts and bolts, trying to find the right size to fit the hole he'd just drilled. He kept the box with the rest of the danger room junk so he didn't accidentally give a broken kitchen appliance a death ray, or a frozen computer a tiny chainsaw. He was just about to fix a mangled floor turret when he heard a high pitch scream.

Forge looked up, surprised by the sound. People didn't usually visit him down in his workshop, and they definitely didn't scream. Well, unless he smelled. He lifted an arm and sniffed tentatively. _How long have I been down here? _He heard the sound again, and his curiosity won out. He got up and wiped the bits of metal shavings off of his cybernetic leg and looked for the source of the noise. "Hello?" He asked. He pushed aside a headless robot, and a girl suddenly appeared out of thin air and landed in front of him, scattering toasters and broken can openers everywhere. "Jeez-" Forge tripped over backwards onto a cardboard box and was buried under styrofoam.

Lorelei watched the man attempt to claw his way back out from under the foam. She noticed the little X on his buckle catch the light when he… just… made it… out of theeeee... nope. He fell back into the box.  
_Sigh. X men. I should've known they'd keep a piece of me. Baldie really doesn't want me to leave, does he?_

After watching the man struggle for a couple more seconds, she grabbed him by the lapels and heaved him up.  
"Are all you idiots this useless?"  
"Ehm." Forge started, "I just fix things mostly… you're not a bad guy are you? I'd have to… uh… apprehend you… if… you are."  
Lorelei snorted. "Right. Listen, vhere's Baldie? I've got some colorful words to say to him."  
"Professor X? He's probably in his office." Forge froze. "Uh… I shouldn't have told you that. I have no idea where he is, I can take a messa-"

Lorelei dropped him back into his box and turned around to find the exit. "Nein."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"I'm telling you Kurt, blue is the new bla-"  
Lorelei interrupted the conversation by slammed the office door open, knocking over Scott and a potted palm in the process. "You're all fucked."  
"Lorelei!" Kurt shouted happily. "I thought you were de-"  
"Alright Baldie," She seethed – ignoring Kurt's happy greeting. "Vat type of sick game are you playing at?"

"Game?" Charles queried, surprised by her entrance. "I'm not sure what you mean, but I am certainly glad to see-"  
"VHY ARE YOU KEEPING PIECES OF ME EVERYWHERE YOU SILLY BILLIARD BALL?!"  
Logan suddenly laughed very loudly. "That's a good one!" He turned serious just as quickly though, "you'd better be respectful though, or I'll cut that other ear of yours off."  
"Screw you und your stupid claws! Vhy are you hiding-"  
"Lorelei I think I might have an answer to your question… tell me where you just came from." Professor X steepled his fingers and looked intently at her, as if he just realized he could read her mind. Which he could – she was human at this point.  
"I don't know," she said and turned to face him. "I vas in the basement somewhere. Some dummkopf with a metal leg tried to sneak up on me."  
"His name is Forge." Professor X corrected. "He can fix just about everything… and create just about everything as well. He's quite brillian-"  
"Ja, wunderbar. Vhere's the rest of me?"  
"Pardon?"  
Lorelei chuckled quietly and moseyed up to professor X's desk. She sat on the edge of it and leaned in close, "Herr Cue Ball," She started, "YOU'VE MADE ME FIVE INCHES TALL!"  
"Nein, Lorelei." Kurt corrected. "You've messed up your metric system. American's use the-"  
"I KNOW VAT AN INCH IS!"

Professor considered the livid German on the edge of his desk. "Lorelei…" he started softly, making her lean in more to hear what he was saying. "I didn't _make_ you small." Professor X tried to keep her attention away from the little bag he was motioning for Scott to take discreetly. "A piece of you must have remained after the laser hit you…"  
Scott gradually came to a stop next to the desk after nonchalantly inspecting the broken clock.  
"What must have happened…"  
Scott slowly reached out to the bag.  
"Was that a piece of your skull remained when your head was vaporized."  
He pulled gently at the string.  
"It was swept down to Forge's workshop with the broken turret – or any session after that."  
_Crap_. The baggie spilled a little.  
"And you finally awoke down there."  
Scott managed to take the bag without noticing it, and he quickly left the room.  
"Obviously there wasn't enough of… you… for a full comeback, which is probably why you're small."  
Lorelei stared at Professor X, she hated to admit it but it made sense. There was an awkward silence as the group stared at Lorelei, waiting for some swears or some sort of comeback. Nothing.

"Vell, now that we're all back together I say we get ice cream to celebrate!" Kurt shouted from the bookshelf he was sitting on.  
"Why not?" Professor asked. "My treat."  
"Ice cream?!" Bobby and Kitty shouted from the doorway.  
"Ice cream?" Hank asked unhappily.  
"ICE CREAM!" Remy shouted happily.  
"Everyone stop your GODDAMN SHOUTING!" Logan yelled.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

A small group of X men… and Lorelei… eventually sat down at a tiny ice cream stall.  
"This is the most random place for an ice cream shop." Lorelei looked about. They were surrounded by forest on all sides, and about a mile down a very shoddy road. "I swear I saw a pothole inside of a pothole."  
"There's a lake and a bunch of trails further down." Kurt explained. "People take a break from hiking and swimming und come here in the summer, and in winter they get hot chocolate. This is the best place for a random stall! Plus the owner's a mutant, so they're okay with us."  
"You eat like a pig." Lorelei stared, offended at the sight of the chocolate ice cream smeared across Nightcrawler's face.  
Kurt shrugged. "At least I'm enjoying mine. Yours is messing all over your hand, vat a waste."  
Lorelei looked down at her vanilla covered hand and watched as some of the sticky syrup dripped onto her jeans.

"I hate everything."

Professor X joined the two and they all watched as Iceman attempted to reproduce the ice cream. "What's the point of having ice powers if you can't even create ice cream?!" he howled after his fifth failed attempt.  
"You could just eat it." Kitty said.  
"No that makes too much sense."  
Logan sat down in between Rogue and Remy to "keep the creepy to a minimum" and grumbled about being dragged to places he didn't want to go and babysitting.

After the group had finished scoffing down their one to three ice creams, it was decided that it was "nature walk time".  
_Kill me now_. Lorelei slammed her head onto the picnic table.  
"It'll be enjoyable!" Hank insisted. "We'll see so many interesting things! There's poison ivy and lambs ear and…"  
Lorelei tried her hardest to ignore Crazy Bear as they got up and walked into the forest and he explained the importance of watching your step. She ignored him right until she slammed into a tree. She didn't bother trying to pull her face out the trunk of it, and stayed there hoping that it would fuse with her and the X men would forget she was there.  
_They'll all be like, 'OH! Where's Lorelei?' And I won't say anything because I vill be a tree, and they vill search for me but they vill not find me because I vill fall upon their house AND CRUSH THEIR SOULS._

"Lorelei, you coming?" Rogue called from the back of the pack.  
"Nein. I am tree."  
"You can't be a tree Sugah, you're a human."  
"I am a mighty oak…"  
"Come on." She tugged at Lorelei's arm.  
"I vill drown you vith my leaves of heartlessness and whip at you with branches of fear and agony."  
"Well that's awfully morbid Sugah, but let's do it some other time."  
"I vill crush your soul with roots of-"  
Logan had enough of Lorelei's shit and picked her up roughly by the back of her jacket when he passed. He set her down in front of him and pushed the back of her leg with his foot. "Move. Faster you walk, faster we get home." Logan knew molding with trees didn't work, he'd tried it the first time he went on a nature walk as well. He forced her to walk, and even prodded her with a stick once.

"So… you're only five inches tall?" Kurt asked, slowing down to walk besides her.  
Lorelei sighed. "Ja." _Leave me alone_.  
"You're joking."  
She looked over at Blue Monkey, and considered punching him into the berry bush they were passing. She remembered Logan was behind her, and figured it wasn't the best idea. "Nein… but if you carry me I vill show you."  
"Carry you?" Kurt laughed. "I know I look ripped…"  
_Yeah right,_ Lorelei sneered.  
"… but I can't-"  
"Nein stupid, vhen I'm little."  
"Carry griffin you?"  
"Ja."  
Kurt thought about it. If she was really only five inches tall, he could easily carry her. And he'd get that revenge he was still looking for... the drowning didn't count because she was still alive.

"Stop." Beast called from the front. They'd hit a river that was surrounded by jagged rocks on all sides. "This is genus of moss is called sphagnum there are many species…"  
_Wait… isn't this… _Lorelei stared at the line of rocks Blue Bear was standing by and could practically hear them shouting for her to grab them and carry them all home. "FANCY DIRT!" She screamed excitedly.  
"Wait Lorelei, YOU'LL SLIP!" Beast reached out to grab her before she tripped on the moss, but he was too late. Lorelei dove straight… into the rock.  
"THAT KID!" Kitty howled and collapsed to her knees. "SHE ONLY WANTS TO DIE!"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei swam around in the rocks happily. There were some parts of them she couldn't get into, but for the most part they were made out of… whatever her griffin was made out of. It was the same stuff Loreley Cliff was made out of – she could swim in those rocks too. Sometimes she could even create things out of the rocks, but then other times she couldn't.

She sighed and settled down, content. It felt like home here in the rocks. It was cool, and surrounded her without smothering her. She was just about to let herself slip off into dream land, when a thought went through her mind.

_Can't I grow now?_

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

The X men stood there, stunned.  
"Didn't she just un-die?" Remy asked.  
"Well. I give up." Kurt threw his hands in the air and turned to leave. "Obviously she has no regard for human life; I personally frown upon suici-"

At that moment, the rocks beneath their feet rumbled and suddenly gathered in one spot. They seemed to melt and mold together and slowly took on the form of a very large and very flightless griffin.

And she was still missing one of her ears.

"Vell." Kurt said, folding his arms, "Now you can carry me."  
"Nein. You are monkey."  
"I knew something good would come of this nature walk!" Beast exclaimed excitedly.  
_Now I can crush you all!  
_"I can take these stones back to the-"  
"NO!" Lorelei howled and turned to Beast. "You leave them there."  
Beast looked up at the griffin and frowned. It was much easier to understand her when she was little; now her voice sounded deep, rough and, well… stony. "Ah… okay. But I'm not sure what good pears will do…"

Lorelei changed back and picked up a medium sized stone, and hugged it. "You leave my stones here. Mine."  
Rogue rapped her knuckles against one of the rocks near the water's edge. "What makes these ones so special from the others?"  
"They're fancy." Lorelei said, rubbing her cheek on the one in her arms.  
"Dat's weird." Remy whispered to Iceman. Iceman rubbed his chin and nodded in agreement. "Compared to the things I've seen the girls do when they find jeans they like in the mall though… this is nothing."  
Remy frowned and thought back to when he'd been dragged along to one of the girl's many mall crawls. Bobby was right.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

After much kicking and screaming, the team eventually managed to drag Lorelei back from the rocks.  
"You're not putting that boulder in my car!" Remy shouted.  
Lorelei had carried a head-sized rock from the pile before they'd left. "I'm not going vithout it!"  
"Ah said no! Professor, tell her no!"  
Professor X looked between the livid two. "It is his car Lorelei."  
"Then I'll go with volverine."  
"It's Wolverine." Logan corrected. "And hell no."  
"I'll ignore you for the rest of your existence."

Logan looked at her. That was honestly the best deal he'd ever heard from someone he didn't like. "I don't think you can keep that sorta deal."  
"I vill." Lorelei strapped a helmet around her rock and jumped on the bike. "Let's go, I hate you."  
Logan growled and kicked a stone across the street. "Fine, but if you don't leave me I get to cut off your head."  
"Vatever."  
"Or your other ear."  
Lorelei hissed through her teeth and thought about that one. "Nei… agh, alright."

Logan got on, and Lorelei was thrown into his back when his weight shifted the bike down. She wiggled, trying to get as far away as possible from him, but just kept sliding down.  
"Listen kid," Logan snarled from the front, "you either gotta wiggle a whole lot less or little bit more, but this in between shit aint gonna cut it."  
Lorelei picked up her rock and put it between them, "The Griffin King thanks you."  
"Who?"  
"Just go."

Logan kicked off, and followed Remy's bender down the pothole strewn road. It was the longest bike ride he'd ever been on. _No more hitchhikers_, he mentally chided himself. _Especially not one's with rocks in their heads_.

* * *

Will Logan stop picking up hitchhikers? Will Lorelei really crush the world? Will Iceman ever make a real ice cream? Find out... uh... maybe... in future... chapters... maybe. Thanks for reading tho! (and reviewing if it pleases you) :D


	10. Day Two Hundred and Eighty Five

Heya! There's lots of time jumps in this chapter, so you gotta read those sqiggles else you might get a tad bit confused... or you could be ridiculously smart and I'm underestimating everyone. Sorry.

EpicGuestReveiw003: Nope, that's mine. Photoshop does wonders :)  
Angi: That's... a very early time to even be alive._ And_ you're reading this? *grabs heart* my ego... no... it cant handle this... AGH! (thank you! XD)  
Sophi: NOOO I didn't mean to seem needy! Im so sorry! I meant that, plotwise, poop-all happened. Also all my chapters seem mundane when I reread them... but I think that happens to everyone who rereads their stuff. IDK man. but thank you!

* * *

~~~~~~~~One Year Earlier~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei sat in her room, clipping the dead branches off of Butter and muttering to it about drugs and her serious lack of friends. She was currently grounded for being a mutant. She'd actually found out two years earlier – when she was fourteen, that she could control and reshape rocks. She'd finally told her parents earlier that morning, and even gave a demonstration by shaping some into pretty flowers …pretty blotchy block flowers – she didn't practice much; but flowers none the less!

They weren't impressed.

She sighed unhappily. She was no longer allowed outside, with friends, or even to school. The worst part was that Lorelei knew she was a bit of a late bloomer even when it came to mutant powers… and sort of lame. _Hi, I'm Lorelei, and I talk to rocks_. Not a great conversation starter for parties. She frowned and picked up the stone that she had placed in the flowerbox next to Butter. She sat with it resting in her palm and tried to form it into something; it wasn't working very well, it was a stubborn rock. She _was_ trying to make a stone flower partner for her Butter, but it ended up looking like a bulbous lollipop.

"Shut up Butter, rocks are hard to shift! … I don't care if it's ugly, you can't judge a rock by its exterior… maybe she's really pretty on the inside, like and igneous rock with pretty purple crysta- I AM NOT MAKING YOU TWO! I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE A FLOWER! I will not allow polygamy in my bedroom, now shut up and eat your vitamins." Lorelei dumped a bit of water onto her flower and dropped the rock back into the box, annoyed.

She collapsed onto the windowsill overlooking her cliff and leaned her head against the glass. It was a really pretty day outside; there were bunnies and butterflies and Mama probably swearing down by her flower garden. There was also a fat pigeon cooing next to the creepy griffin statue one level down from her window. She hated that statue. When she was little she had asked her dad to get rid of it because it gave her nightmares… but he never got around to it. Sometimes she'd think that it was watching her from outside her window and was trying to get it. _I hate, hate, hate, hate that thing. _She considered climbing onto the roof and shoving it off, but decided against it. _Papa will kill me_.

Lorelei turned her back to the window and slid down to the floor. She sat across from her cupboard mirror, and eyed her very normal looking self. _I don't even look like a mutant_. _There's nothing about me that screams, 'HEY IM FREAKY!' So how can Mama and Papa be so mad when I don't even look the part?  
'You can't judge a rock by its exterior-'  
SHUT UP, BUTTER!_

~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~

Professor X read over the introductory papers his students had turned in to him. He had asked them the day before to write a one page paper with their general information and abilities, and then hand that same paper around to five different people. Those five would in turn write something nice about them on the back and draw a picture. Since most people in his class were either second or third years, they generally knew who everyone else was. Except, of course, for Lorelei.

Lorelei had the literacy capabilities of an eighth grader and the artistic skills of a two year old, and considering she was seventeen… she was a bit behind. Professor X sighed and rubbed his brow. _Didn't they teach her anything in Germany_?

He turned her page over and stopped at Kurt's. Lorelei had drawn a piece of poop with flies on Kurt's page and called him a butt – something she had picked up from Kitty. _That is completely unnecessary.  
_He turned his mind to the inhabitants of the mansion and sought Lorelei's out. When he couldn't find her telltale daydreaming of plots of mansion-domination, he searched for her elevator music. He eventually found it resting on the roof again. He couldn't get through to her when she was griffin-fied… he'd have to wait until she was human again.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was busy sunning herself on the roof and enjoying the fact that she was back to her regular size when felt the familiar twinge in the back of her head as Professor X tried to enter her mind. _Crazy old man won't leave me be_. She stretched and yawned like a cat, scratching her front talons against the soft roof tiles. She sighed happily, and flopped over onto her back and wriggled, trying to get comfy again. It wasn't working. She ground her wings into the shingles and tried to make an indent in the stone until she slid off the side of the roof and slammed headfirst into Storms spiral plant.  
_  
Ohhhh, that… almost hurt_. She looked up, "It's okay!" She shouted. "The giant spiky thing broke my fall."_  
_Piotr glanced up from the step he was sitting on and watched as Lorelei shook bits of pottery and dirt from her shoulders. "For giant stone beast that feels no pain… you are not so scary." He put his book down and smiled at her. "Might be good thing."  
"How is not-scary a good thing?" Lorelei sat on her haunches and tried to reattach a broken nail.  
"For one, small children do not run away from you in fear."  
"I hate kids."_  
_"…Then is bad thing."

They sat there, awkwardly, each waiting for the other person to say something. Nothing.  
"Vell this vas a riveting conversation, but I have to go shower now."  
Piotr nodded and glanced back down to his book, then looked up suddenly. "Do not get Little Bird wet."  
Lorelei grinned, "Not a problem… I shower naked."  
Piotr turned red as if the idea of showering naked was so novel, and awkwardly shoved his face back into his book as she passed. She changed back into her human form when she walked through the door, and was instantly hit with a barrage of telepathic shouting.

"STOP SCREAMING!" She howled and covered her ears.  
There was silence for several seconds, and she uncovered her face.  
_I need to talk to you_, Professor X thought.  
Lorelei looked down the hall to where the Professors office was. The door was closed, but she imagined him sitting there, upset about something; he only called her in when she did something wrong.  
_Nein, I am showering.  
Now.  
I said no. _And with that, Lorelei skipped to the bathroom_._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Ernest Stillman stared at the rows of cages that housed his kidnapped mutants and humans. It was feeding time, and workers were going to each cage one by one and making sure no one escaped. He usually overlooked the whole process, just in case something happened. When nothing did and everyone had been fed, he left and went upstairs to his wife.  
"I've made up my mind." He looked her in the eye and dared her to tell him otherwise.  
"Oh?" She looked up from the quilt she was busy making.  
"We're going to America."  
Mrs. Stillman stared at her husband, impassive. They had argued about this before, and she was tired of it. "Fine."

~~~~~~~~Six Months Earlier~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei had spent half a year inside the Stillman's estate before her father finally approached her. He kneeled down in front of her, and took her smaller hands in his large ones.

"Lorelei, sweetheart."  
_Oh dear God.  
_"Dumpling?"  
_He's going to kill me.  
_"Sugar-pie."  
_He wants my soul. _  
"Sunshine."  
_Why is he being so nice?_  
"My little baby."  
_Why is he talking to me now?  
_"My cherub."  
Lorelei leaned back from her father a bit and eyed him fearfully. _What is he going to do?_ "…Ja…?"  
"I have a job for you and your… special powers."  
"… Job?"  
"Remember all that time ago, when that man came and talked to daddy?"  
Lorelei thought back to that night several years ago. She was ten, and Papa had told her to wait upstairs. "Ja?"  
Well, he gave Papa a job then… and now I have a job for you too, sugar… filling."  
Silence.  
"Vat do you want me to do?"

She didn't like her father's business, especially not the captured people part. She was okay with the rest – she was out of touch with the world by this point, and had found an angry Irishman in the basement. Garvey was fun to mess with.  
"All I need you to do is watch the back door."  
Lorelei looked at him quizzically. "But the backdoor doesn't-"  
"That's the point darling. It's a trap."  
A silent 'oooooh' came out of Lorelei's mouth, and her mind wandered to the fact that she was grounded.  
"So… I'm not grounded?"  
"Yes… and no. You're grounded in the sense that you can't leave the estates grounds."  
Lorelei glanced out her window sadly. _I'll never leave these grounds…?_

~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei towel dried her hair like a crazed animal and flipped it over her shoulder. _Close enough_. It was still sopping wet and made a huge streak down the back of her shirt. She threw the unwanted towel into her dirty stuff pile next to the window and realized she'd left the curtains open. The open window gave her a nice view of the boring line of trees outside, and she realized that she was just as much a captive now as she was six months earlier. _I'll never leave these grounds_.  
_I still need to talk to you_.  
_Damnit Baldie you're annoying_.  
_Please come see me in my office.  
I shan't, it's my birthday.  
It's isn't, Lorelei. But if you come down I'll let you go shopping with Storm and a few others.  
_Lorelei thought hard about this. She didn't enjoy shopping with other people; she'd rather do it on her own. She was, however, bored – and this was a way to get out the house.

_Can I ride the five cent ponies?_  
_Whatever you like.  
Be there in two seconds._

It took Lorelei more than two seconds to go downstairs. It was more like eleven, and she even tripped on the way down. She burst through the door excitedly and knocked over the potted palm again. It toppled over and spat out whatever dirt was left in it from the last time she bumped into it, and it finally came to a rest at Storms feet.  
"That was fast." Storm bent down and picked up the foiled ficus and propped it back up against the wall. She patted Lorelei's shoulder as she left the room, "Meet us in the garage when you're done talking with the professor."  
Lorelei watched her shut the door softly, and then turned to the Professor.  
"Ja?"  
Professor X motioned to the seat across from him.  
_Aw. It's one of those lectures_.  
Professor X waited for her to get comfortable. After much butt wiggling and chair squeaking he raised an eyebrow and ahem-ed.  
Lorelei stopped and looked up at him.  
"Finished?" he asked.  
Lorelei squeaked one more time, paused, then nodded yes.

Professor X smiled, slightly amused, and pulled out Kurt's paper. He tapped on it and then pushed it forward to her. "Do you recognize this?"  
Lorelei grinned wickedly. "Ja."  
Professor X sighed. It wasn't the reason he had called her down, and she didn't even seem to be sorry about the poop. He pulled the sheet back and shuffled it in between the rest of the papers. Professor X was suddenly very interested in making all them line up, and he talked to her while straightening their edges. "Lorelei, I need to ask you something."  
"Vat?"  
"How do you feel about the people in this house? Do you really not like any of them, or is there someone you can connect with?"

He watched her face and read her mind as is quickly flashed through all the people she knew, and the emotions she had attached to them. Kurt – irritation, Beast – exasperation, Logan – disgust, Scott – disinterest, Jean – unsure, Remy – indifference, Storm – also disinterest, Kitty – condescending, Piotr – amusement. He noticed she made sure not to think about him at all, and she tried very hard to keep her mind from rabbit-trailing to her parents. She, like most people, focused on the person's name or face when she tried not to think of them - giving away who exactly she was trying _not_ to think of. Right now she was focusing on her fathers face, and he watched as her mind twisted into a window, then a garden, a griffin, a pile of rocks, back to her father. It twisted again and she tried to think of the sun on the roof and Piotr on the steps, but that switched back to a little girl in uniform on school steps, that turned to a yellow flower, and then her mind suddenly wandered to Mormons and vitamins. _What…_ Professor X wondered. _How is any of this related? _He looked down and scratched the back of his hand, pretending he wasn't reading her mind as he waited for her to answer.

"Nein." She answered after thoughts of golden doors and bookshelves. She was now thinking it would be a good idea to jump into her griffin-form. Professor X watched her from across his desk and wondered if he should make Piotr her mentor and "warden" instead of Kurt, since he was the only one with a positive feeling associated with his name. He decided against it in the end, remembering that Piotr was gentle in nature, and Lorelei was quite brash. _He won't be able to stop her if she decided to leave, well, he's more than capable physically - but he wouldn't want to do it._

"Vell if that's all, I'm leaving." Lorelei jumped up from the chair and rushed out before Professor X asked her to feel again.  
"Wa-" Professor X stopped – hand reaching out into thin air to pull her back. He lowered it back onto the desk and watched her fleeing form as she skidded around a corner. He eased the grip on the bag in his left hand, and sighed. _Another day, then_.

~~~~~~~~Five Months Earlier~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei stood with her back against the wall, alternating between hyperventilating and sobbing. She had a large gash on her arm, but was too terrified to even feel any pain. The men that had tried to enter the backdoor had all successfully been taken out by the mutant-guards that Papa had hired to watch over the estate. The mutants had quickly learned of the threat, but some intruders had remained hidden. Lorelei had been unfortunate enough to find one and managed to get him into a crude stone cocoon before he could knock her out. It was his friend that grabbed her and tried to stab her neck, and missed. Lorelei had had a months' worth of practice with her powers by then, and could send rocks hurtling through the air. She hit him with one, which was what caused him to miss.

She had immediately rushed to the wall and pressed herself against it, hoping she had some dormant chameleon powers to make her invisible. She had none, but by then the guards had located the two she had knocked out and took them out – permanently. Lorelei looked at the guards, half expecting them to at least ask if she was okay – she was their boss's daughter after all. They didn't, and left without a word.

Dejected and in pain, she walked inside her home, all the while trying to stem the flow of blood. Papa was in a meeting, so she had to sit in the unused kitchen while Mama grumbled about doing everything and bloody kids. After an hour of agony, Mama had patched her daughter up and bandaged the wound as best she could.  
Lorelei inspected her booboo and patted it gingerly, "Vill be okay soon?" she asked.  
"Hopefully you get tetanus..." Mama mumbled.  
"Vat?"  
"JA, TEN DAYS!" her mother yelled.

Lorelei watched her mother mill about in the kitchen a while longer before heading back upstairs to her room. After Butters daily feeding, she morphed his girlfriend into a rose. Lorelei was able to shape and control almost any rock by this point with a bit of sweat and struggle. She stared deeply into Butters nonexistent eyes.  
_It would be nice to be a rock_, she told him, _I would get scratched and I would not bleed. Or feel pain_… _and I won't feel sad because rocks feel nothing._ She got up from her bed and shoved the rock rose back into the dirt, and turned out the light. _I won't be able to go outside tomorrow_, she thought sleepily. She pulled the sheets closer to her chin and snuggled in, _I'll practice throwing rocks instead_.

~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei sat at the back of the mom-van, arms crossed and face hidden behind her fringe. All around her people were screaming at each other and throwing things – Oreos, wrappers, curses - it was aggravating.  
She grabbed ahold of the nearest kid by the shirt front and hissed through her teeth at him, "Shut. Your. Cake. Hole."  
There was silence in the car, and she released his wrinkled shirt.  
"Now, now, Lorelei, we all have the liberty to speak." Storm scolded from the driver's seat.  
"JA, IN CIVIL TONES!"  
"Lorelei you're shouting!"  
"I VILL CRUSH YOUR SOULS!"  
"Agh." Storm made a sound somewhere between disgust and a snort, and stared angrily at the road before her.

The rest of the car ride was uneventful, aside from the bump that made Piotr spill his drink on some first-year kid. He apologized for the rest of the drive and practically begged to buy her a new shirt. After parking, Lorelei almost flew out the car and fell to her knees outside.

"AAAAIIIIIRRRR!"  
"Lorelei get up, you're making a scene." Kitty tapped the top of her head and helped pull her up.  
"Vat? Air is good. I breathe air. Air is my middle name."  
"It isn't." Kitty frowned at the little German, then broke out into a grin. "C'mon, I'll show you the best stores. It'll be great." She tugged at Lorelei's belt loop and pulled her with her.  
"But vat about the ponies?!"  
"Later!"  
They sprinted into the mall as Storm called out for everyone to meet in two hours by the main doors.

~~~~~~~~Five Months Earlier~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei juggled some rocks, trying to amuse herself in her room. _This day is probably number nine hundred and forty five in my Best Days Ever book._ She pulled the massive scrapbook out from under her bed and turned to that page. She flipped a photo over and nodded absentmindedly to herself; _make that nine hundred and forty seven_. She slammed it shut and watched as the little dust bunnies tried to scamper away. _I need to clean_.

She spent the rest of that uneventful day single handedly cleaning her entire room. Literally single handedly… her other arm had the gash. She threw underwear into a hamper and papers in the bin, cleaned a skeleton out of her cupboard and even washed the ceiling - she used a small rock platform to stand on and levitated it up to the roof.

She was finishing up drying her windows when it finally caught her eye – that damn griffin. It always sat on the roof - a great granite idiot - waiting for something… _Someone needs to do something about that thing, it's large and pointless and it gives me nightmares. _She stared at it intently, hoping it would suddenly become sentient and fly away. _Well, I'm on a roll today_, she figured_, if I'm cleaning my room, I might as well clean that griffin… OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH!_

~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei tripped into a mannequin and mumbled an apology before turning around and knocking over a bookstand and running away in fear.  
"Lorelei!" Kitty called her to come clean up her mess, but Lorelei was hiding in the clothes rack.  
"You have made mess, Little Bird." Piotr pulled back the rack of clothes and exposed Lorelei's hiding spot.  
"Nein, it vas the Griffin King." She tugged on a pair of jeans and tried to close the clothes door.

Piotr pooh-poohed at her answer and pulled her out. He was holding on to the first-years new shirt that he was about to buy to make up for the one he ruined. "If you make mess, you clean. Do not hide from problems, it only gets worse."  
"Your problems about to get a lot worse if you don't let go of me."  
Piotr let go of her arm like he had been stung, and shuffled over to the check-out counter. He looked back once as if he were expecting to get a shoe thrown at him or something.  
"Don't be so mean to him!" Kitty chided as she helped Lorelei pick up the books. "He's like an overgrown baby… an overgrown metal baby that can break almost anything… he's cute."  
Lorelei looked over at Kitty. "Vat?"  
"What?"  
"Vat did you just say?"  
"What?"  
"No… the baby…"  
"I didn't-"  
"Shush, just shush." Lorelei smacked a book on Kitty's head and placed the last one back in its spot. "Done."

"Finally." Kitty brushed her hands against her pant leg and pushed her hair behind her ear. "We need to get you some clothes. You can't wear jeans and tees all the time."  
"I can."  
Kitty nodded, "Well _you_ can, but at least make them different."  
Lorelei grabbed the jeans that had made up her hiding-door a few seconds ago. "Found some, I am done."  
Kitty grabbed them, "One, these are maternity pants, and two, they are way too long for you."  
"You're only mad you can't pull them off."  
"Lorelei these go up to your chin!" She held them up to her face, and Lorelei gawked.  
"How tall do you people get?"  
"You're just short." Kitty threw the pants back onto the rack, and dragged Lorelei through the rest of the department. "We'll go look through the petites."  
"I AM A GIAN-!"  
"Stop yelling!"

~~~~~~~~Five Months Earlier~~~~~~~~~__

Lorelei looked deeply into the statues eyes. She wanted it to feel fear. She wanted it to know that she was the master of the earth (technically, literally) and ruler of the rocks. _I vill crush you, and your dreams of flight. _She poked it in the forehead_. You give me nightmares? Pah. I vill give you permanent sleep. _She circled it, feeling crazy… but hey, she already talks to rocks and flowers.

She stopped at one of its wings and placed her palm against it. There was a small line in the stone indicating two different rock types. _Granite and slate? Those don't mix well. How can this thing stay together for so long?_ The statue had been below her window long before she or even her grandparents were born, it should have at least had some weathering on it - but it appeared to be quite new.

Lorelei plopped onto the grass in front of it. After cleaning her room, she had snuck outside and shifted the statue off the roof when the guards weren't looking. She sat a ways away from them now in the wildflower field, overlooking her cliff. She'd moved the statue with her, and planned on kicking it off the cliff 300 style after she was done instilling some fear in its hardened heart.

She looked up at its giant head. It wasn't really its fault that it was stupid and scary; it was just made that way. She rolled her eyes. _Fine, _she sighed_, I won't slaughter you senselessly; I'll just crush your bones and scatter them, how about that? _She rolled onto her back and then onto her side and got up. _This will be good rock-shifting practice_. Placing her palm against the statues chest, she willed the stones existence into scattering into a million pieces… but she couldn't do it, it was too big. She punched it with her good arm and tried again, and again, and again, but got the same results.

_A different approach then_. Usually to control rocks, she had to get them in her sight, or feel them. For bigger rocks she actually had to be holding onto them and… 'understanding' them. They weren't just rocks; she had to wrap her mind around the fact that they were living "things", and literally control them with just her mind. With tiny rocks she exerted her mutant powers physically; with big ones she did it mentally.

She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her mind firmly against the stone. She imaged it in her head; each grain of sand and all its rocky atoms, and thought she felt them splitting under her fingertips. _You are mine, rock, you and all your stoniness_. It was giving her a headache though, _so… close…_ she pushed a little harder. She shoved her mind inside of the stone, willing it to break. Maybe if she thought heard enough she could punch through it. She went with it, but only got halfway before the rock stated healing. In her terror to pull back out she forgot to keep digging, and the stony wall closed around her mind.

~~~~~~~~Present~~~~~~~~~

Kitty eyed the shoes on her feet and finally admitted that they really didn't match anything at all.  
"Those look like butt."  
"Lorelei you're not using that word right. Butt is something you say when… oh forget it." She pulled of the shoes and stuck them back in the box. "I'm done. See anything you like?"  
Lorelei eyed the five-cent carousel outside the department store. "Ja, that pony."  
"Forget the carousel, we'll do that later."  
"Where is Kurt?" Lorelei looked around, suddenly realizing that she hadn't seen Kurt around for a while.  
"He left like, four days ago dummy. I think he went to Germany or something…" Kitty grabbed her hangers and left the changing room.  
Lorelei trailed after her, _how come I never get to go to Germany?_ "Vat for?"  
"Dunno."  
The girls finally gathered their things and waited in the queue for an elderly lady to find her purse.

At the checkout counter, Lorelei sneaked a bag of gummies in with Kitty purchase, and then tried to tell her it was a free gift. After Kitty made her return the bag, Piotr rebought it to make Lorelei feel better. Storm made Piotr take it back because Lorelei did not need the sugar, and already had over two hundred dollars' worth of clothes in her bags. Lorelei bought the bag herself in the end, but had it stolen by some Australian clown with fire-powers when she wasn't looking. The Australian guy shared it with his friends, who in turn all woke up with rocks in their mouths the next morning. Professor X confronted a very innocent Lorelei over the matter, who professed to have no recollection of gummy bags; but prescribed the boys illnesses as "rock-jaw" – lock jaw for people with rocks. Dr. McCoy said there was no such documented illness, and suggested that Lorelei was lying. Lorelei threatened to crush his soul, and blamed the Griffin King. Professor X decided that Lorelei was no longer allowed to go shopping without a set amount of money to spend, and gave her a light scolding. Australian clown got stuck with doing dishes for a week, and sometimes Lorelei would use two plates. In the end, the only thing that was great about the day was the five cent ponies, which Lorelei rode for an hour in the mall.

_Day two hundred and eighty five_.

* * *

Das chapter ten yo *tears* we've come so far, you and me Reader. *Pats computer screen and whispers* _thanks for reading._


	11. Time to End

I feel motivated, lets wrap this story up!

* * *

Wolverine jammed his hands into his pockets and squinted against the salty ocean's breeze. It was almost eight, and he was waiting for the orange ball to slip below the sea's horizon. He was standing on some docks for no apparent reason; he'd gone out earlier that day in a good mood and figured this was a pleasant way to end it. He wasn't into the sappy stuff about sunsets and all; but it felt good to know that there was something else in the world that was ancient and persistent. It continued its tread across the universe, undaunted – falling after rising, rising after falling, and sometimes pulling things down with it.

His shoulders slumped and he sighed_. I need ta stop hangin' out with women, I ain't got time ta contemplate sunsets n' shit_.

With that, he turned and kicked at his bike stand and pushed off, driving back through downtown and eventually the school.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Stillman sat in his armchair, fingers steepled, and looking over the sorry excuse of mutants standing in front of him. There was a big angry guy with claws and teeth, and idiot with a metal umbrella helmet, some blue chick, a green guy sitting on his haunches, and someone else who he presumed was Magnet-o sitting on the other side of the room.

"So…" he began, "This is your team?"  
Magneto narrowed his gaze and sat forward a little more. "Were you expecting something else?"  
Mr. Stillman heard his chair groan a little and felt it buckle a bit. _I hate, hate, HATE mutants_. "I… wasn't sure what to expect, actually."  
Magneto released the little rivets in his partners chair and leaned back again. He studied the guy over and smiled. He looked a bit like a bank accountant - a little short, very weedy, pale, thick gold-rimmed glasses, very… bookish. But he had a harsh face; his eyes were too small and shrewd, and he looked the type of person who'd poison the office water cooler if you took his stapler.  
"So, Mr. Stillman, you came all the way here from Germany to see how your business is going?" Magneto tsked and feigned disappointment. "You hurt me."  
"It's not just you, Magnet-o." Ernest paused and watched as Magneto squirmed a bit when he said his name. "I came to find my daughter; I think the X men took her."  
Magneto nodded slightly, "Yes, the little stone one isn't it?"  
_Little?_ "She's here then?"  
Magneto looked over to where Mystique was leaning against the wall. "Yes… I remember Mystique saying something about a little griffin in the basement when she gave the bag to the X men."  
"So they did take her…" Ernest trailed off.

Magneto waited for Stillman to say something else, but he seemed to be off in La-La-land. "Ahem?"  
Mr. Stillman looked back over to Magneto. "Ah, I think we might have a change in plan, then… if Lorelei has truly been kidnapped."  
"You'd like me to rescue her?"  
Mr. Stillman nodded and looked down, "_It's why I hired you…_" he mumbled.  
"Ernest I wish you wouldn't mumble, it's a coward thing to do." Magneto frowned. "Speak up."  
Mr. Stillman hated it when his subordinates referred to him by his first name. "I wish you wouldn't call me that, Magnet-o."  
Magneto cocked an eyebrow, "Well, once you start saying my name right I'll definitely look into it."

Stillman opened his mouth to argue and Magneto held up his hand before Ernest could respond. "I will get your daughter for you," Magneto promised, "but in return, there's something I'd like you to do for me."  
"What?"  
Magneto smiled, more to himself than Stillman. "We'll discuss that at a later date."  
"I'd prefer to do it now." Mr. Stillman did not want to make deals without the other side naming their price; otherwise all hell would break loose when they made an outrageous request.  
"Later."  
Mr. Stillman got up quickly and made to confront Magneto. "I said-"  
Claws-and-teeth made a growl and turned his creepy face to German drug-dealer. "Uh…" Stillman stuttered, "Okay… later then."  
"Good." Magneto turned to leave and the rest of the group followed after.  
Ernest Stillman stayed at his desk, staring into the door for a while longer before finally sinking back into his seat. He rubbed his brow tiredly, _soon. _He thought to himself_. Soon this will be all over – no more Magnet-o's, no more superpowers. No. More. Mutants._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Und the hair…"  
"Nein Lorelei, Professor X has no hair."  
Lorelei looked up from her picture to her blue warden. "Hair is good."  
"Ja, but you made him look like a clown."  
"Only because I used the red crayon."  
"You mock the Professor."  
"He is beautiful like this." Lorelei drew a fat circle in the middle of the Professors face and snickered. "Now, he is a real clown."  
"NEIN!" Kurt shrieked and tried to take the crayon away from the crazed girl.  
"THAT'S MY CRAYON!" She howled.

The two collided and rolled around on the floor, grappling for control of the crayon.  
"I swear I vill bash your face in again!"  
"BITE ME!" Kurt howled and teleported them both to the kitchen, crashing down onto the large island in the middle.  
"That HURT!" She shouted in his ear. Neither one was about to let go, and they both rolled off the side.

"Guys! Whoa-" Bobby nearly tripped over them, and Kurt teleported again.

Now they were in the foyer.  
"And this is where you will be – HEY!" Scott flattened himself against a wall to keep from being pulled into the fray. The new girl that was being shown the mansion was run over as Lorelei managed to get the crayon and tried to scamper away. Kurt tackled her and brought her to her knees and teleported again before she could hit his face.

Kurt rolled as he teleported and made sure to land on top of Lorelei so she couldn't get away, "This is mine." He said through gritted teeth as he tried to pry open her fist. Lorelei's mind was still reeling from the last jump, and she fumbled for the griffin switch at the back of her mind.  
"I vill crush your soul!"  
"YOU COULDN'T EVEN CRUSH A SODA CAN!" He screamed and grabbed a hold of her shoulders and teleported again, adamant on wearing her out and taking that damn crayon.

"Shit…" Lorelei's vision flickered and she tried to get away from Blue Monkey. They were somewhere in the garden now. She rolled on top of her crayon enclosed fist and curled into a ball. "You must pry this from my COLD, DEAD HAND if you vant it!"  
"That's vat I'm planning to do!"  
He poked her hard in the side and she reflexively punched in his direction. He dodged her hand neatly and grabbed it; she had used the one with the crayon in it.  
"Nein!" she half cried. This battle was more than a fight over a crayon; or even a clown picture. This was a battle for dominance. This was a battle of who was really alpha-male in this mansion, and Lorelei was not about to lose to a sassy ass blue monkey!

She shoved her foot into his crotch and they teleported only three feet. Kurt rolled to his side and made a high pitched whine.  
"HA! I AM ALPHA!" she screamed.  
She turned and stumbled a bit, then felt a hand clamp down hard on her neck.  
"I've had enough of you, Griffin."  
"Too bad," she hissed, "your cup's about to runneth over, priest!" She ducked down and did a half-hearted somersault to get away. Kurt collapsed on top of her in a bear hug and Lorelei felt her stomach lurch again.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Sabretooth stopped, and sniffed at the air. Ducking, he dove into a bush a full minute before Wolverine blew past on his bike. He grinned; _it's good to be downwind_.

Logan continued onward, unaware of the threat; he was going too fast to catch a whiff of anything. He reached the school grounds thirty minutes later, just in time to see Lorelei and Kurt rolling in the grass before teleporting off. He scowled and parked in the garage, hoping his relatively good day wasn't about to sour just three hours before it ended. After dismounting and kicking Forge's leg in greeting, he entered the mansion via the basement.  
"Logan, a moment of your ti-"  
"No," Wolverine brushed past Beast without so much as a nod. "I'm having a good day."  
"Uh… oh?" Beast watched his friend walk down the hall, and leave the basement.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei lost to the sassy ass blue monkey. It wasn't even a fair fight; after the garden episode, Kurt teleported to fifteen different locations in a span of five seconds. Her head was reeling so hard she couldn't tell if she was upright, sideways, or inside-out.

Kurt watched as Lorelei tried to rise again, but fell flat on her face. "You should lie down Lorelei; you are only going to hurt yourself." The quick teleports was Kurt's favorite move; it worked very well on almost everyone. A few people had some resistance to the multi-dimensional jumps he did, but… he watched as she flipped onto her back and tried to get up London Bridge style… most did not.  
"I vill crush-"  
"Stop saying that." Kurt threw the crayon in the air and caught it again, "It's getting old."  
"It vasn't me, it vas-"  
"That's getting old too."

Scott walked into the living room where the two were sitting and stopped at Lorelei's drawing. He bent down, picked it up and stared at it. "What's this?"  
Kurt got up and stood beside him as they both took in Lorelei's art. "Lorelei made fun of the Professor."  
"She did?" Scott asked. He cocked his head and squinted, "This is just a badly drawn picture… besides its crudeness, there's not much-"  
"She gave Professor X a clown nose."  
Scott stared at the large circle in the middle of Xavier's face. "That's not…"  
"It's red and obscene, and I don't appreciate it."  
Scott looked over to Kurt, back at the picture, then back to Kurt. He sighed, shook his head and handed him the drawing. "Well I can't tell – everything I see is red."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~  
_  
_Forge pulled himself out from under the jeep he was working on and rubbed the oil on his hands onto his pants. _Done_, he smiled to himself. He was just about to start packing up his tools when he felt a sharp pain at his neck, and fell unconscious.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei stayed drooling on the carpet when Kurt left to go to the bathroom. She continued drooling when _that… guy. Oh… vat's his name? Baldie said it was… Gorge? No… Surge! No… FIX IT FELIX!_ Her mind wandered as the metal legged guy hefted her over his shoulder and muttered about shitty defense systems.

_Hey, Kitty_. Lorelei tried to wave as Kitty trailed after them and asked what was going on. She shifted her head a bit when a guy came out of nowhere and punched Kitty through a wall. _You'll never get to second base like that_, "You're supposed to take her to dinner first!" She cried hoarsely at Angry Biceps guy. He turned to her briefly, and was tackled by the guy she killed a month or so ago. _Uh… wolverine_. Metal Leg was running.

Lorelei was tossed down a hallway as Metal Leg suddenly turned into… Jean? Red-Lenses was unfazed by his girlfriend, and made to smack her with his eyebrows. _Eye… beams. Optic… laser pointers. Whatever_. Magic-Lady Jean started screaming and covering her ears and basically having a seizure; she collapsed onto the ground and changed into a blue woman. _Heh_, Lorelei grinned, _I can see her boobies._

Scott ran up to Lorelei. She looked dazed; her eyes were everywhere and she was drooling. "Stay here." He told her.  
_Okie-dokie_.  
He got up and ran off to find someone, and colossus nearly stepped on Lorelei when he sprinted downstairs.  
"Little Bird, this is not the time for naps!" he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "This is the time for fighting!"  
Lorelei grinned, "Did I tell you the joke about this metal guy?"  
Colossus grabbed her and carried her upstairs to one of the rooms. "Not now."  
"I forgot how it goes but I remember the punch line…"  
"I will be right back." He set her down on the bed and put his fingers to his lips in a "shh".  
"He's always… rushing… around. GET IT? RUSSIAN!"  
"Lorelei you must hush!" Colossus left, but returned three seconds later with Angry Biceps. Well, Angry Biceps shoved him through the door.

"You're all here! PARTY!" Lorelei yelled. She tried to mosh, but it's a hard thing to do when you're lying on a bed by yourself.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Colossus turned down the hall and nearly ran into Sabretooth. Sabretooth used the off-balanced metal mutant to bash through the door; he could smell this kid's scent from the room. _She ain't scared… _he realized. He'd have to move fast, he'd shoved wolverines hand down a garbage disposal, and his finger bones got stuck between the rotor blades. _He'll rip that shit quickly, we gotta move fast_. He dodged colossus's blows and grabbed at the wriggling girl, but missed. _What the hell is she doing? _He jumped over the bed and pulled her with him, making a beeline for the window.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei almost moshed off the bed, but Angry Biceps grabbed her before she fell. _Such a gentleman_, she sighed, _I'll give you two cookies for that_. He grabbed at her jacket-front and tried to drag her out the room. _NOT THOSE COOKIES! … What is it with this guy not asking girls to dinner first? Maybe he's just shy. _She petted his ass and told him he was beautiful in the inside as he spun in little circles.  
"WHEEEEEE!"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Kurt teleported to Colossus's room just before Sabretooth dove out the window. The feral mutant spun in a circle, surrounded by Colossus on one side and Kurt on the other. Kurt watched in morbid fascination as Lorelei patted Sabretooth butt, told him he was pretty on the inside, then screamed like a kid on a merry-go-round.

"Put her down, Sabretooth." Kurt spoke evenly.  
Sabretooth just grinned, and motioned for Kurt to make the first move.  
It was Colossus who moved first, however. He leaped forward and grabbed Lorelei, turning his back to Sabretooth so that his claws would miss her. He felt the man land on top of him, and he tried to keep himself from crushing the little German beneath him.  
"Kurt…" he heaved. He felt himself teleport along with Sabretooth… but Lorelei wasn't with them.  
"Where is Little Bird?" he cried to the two above him.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was trying to inch out from under the dog pile when everyone suddenly disappeared. She looked behind her, disappointed.  
"So no more mosh?" she asked to no one in particular.  
Logan suddenly rushed passed the door, then backtracked and stopped on the threshold. He looked at her, nodded, and then went back the way he came.  
"MOSH VITH ME!" she screamed after him. She folded her arms and fell over onto her side, off balance again. "I don't even like broccoli."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Magneto watched the happenings from afar… it looked dismal. The plan had been a good one; Charles was out of state with Storm, Rogue, Remy and a few others to find a new mutant. Lorelei was usually in bed by nine and up by five, so all they had to do was sneak into her room and grab her. _Something… unplanned has happened_. He straightened his helmet and made to enter the school grounds. He had hoped to stay out of the mess, but if you want something done right…

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei wandered down the hallway, adamant on finding someone to mosh with. There were a lot of screams and scary noises coming from downstairs, but Lorelei didn't like those kinds of parties. She wandered out onto the third-level balcony, and watched as a man in a bucket helmet and bed sheets made the little turrets in the front yard explode.  
"Hey!" Lorelei shook her fist at him, "Stop ruining the grass!"  
Bucket Head looked to her then used one of the turrets to levitate up to her. She backpedaled as he landed softly before her.  
"Cool! You do what I do! Except I do what I do with rocks and stuff. I do. Do. DOO DOO!" Lorelei bent over and tried to keep herself from crying as she laughed. "THAT'S A GREAT JOKE!"  
Magneto frowned. Stillman did not say his daughter was an idiot. _I'm charging him extra for her mouth_.  
Lorelei busied herself with pulling pieces of hair from Magnetos cape and telling him to rinse it with cool water to keep its color from fading.

"Lorelei?" he asked, shooing her away from his cape.  
"Ja?"  
"I'm Magneto; you're going to come with me."  
Lorelei looked up into the old man's face. It was harsh, like a desert sun; it was serious, like a worldwide epidemic; and it was timeless… like a clock. She smiled sweetly up at him, and gazed into his big blue eyes…

…And screamed.

"STRANGER DANGER!"  
Magneto covered her mouth with a strip of metal and wrapped her up with the remainder of the turrets. _This child could not possibly be worth the hassle_, he seethed. _What am I doing here, acting like a foot soldier? Stillman…_ Magneto's frown deepened. _He and I are going to have some words._

* * *

WORDS I SAY!

Thanks for your continued looking-overness of my story! Stay sassy!


	12. Science Time!

I'm so sorry this took so long to update! School just came out of nowhere, and I've written more papers than I've cared to write in my life. Anyways. I'll be updating a bit faster now, now that schools *mostly* out of the way. Anyways. Thanks as always for reading! :)

* * *

Lorelei sat on the docks in front of her father's warehouse, throwing bread crumbs at passing seagulls. They would scream and flutter away, then came swooping back once they realized she was throwing something edible. One particularly speckled one was exceptionally brave, and even went so far as to grab at the bag of bread. Lorelei had named him Mister Clutch; and he was the meanest seagull of them all.  
"Shoo!" She waved her arm wildly and held the bag close to her chest. "It's not all yours, Herr Seagull. You must share vith your brothers!" She felt her heart twist a little when she thought of Iceman and the trouble he got into when he ate all the Hershey bars. He didn't share either… but he wasn't a speckled seagull; Mister Clutch had an excuse at least.

Lorelei sighed. She missed the X men; their constant bickering and general stupidity was very endearing to her - not that she'd ever tell them. She didn't even get to say goodbye when Magneto had invaded the X Mansion with his group of Merry Men; Kurt's teleporting had made her completely bonkers. At least she had been reunited her with her mother and father… sort of. Since she had arrived at her parents "base", Lorelei had seen neither hide nor hair either of them. They were always in some meeting with someone discussing something, shouting about whatever and never coming out. Her parents didn't even ask about the night Lorelei went missing, they just accepted the fact she was there now and then moved on with their lives. _I guess it's because they're busy with their business,_ she figured. _They have to talk to me eventually_.

Magneto had done another mansion raid a day after he had unkidnapped Lorelei to bring back Blue Boobs. Angry Biceps Guy, er, Sabretooth, had apparently set off the alarm system which alerted everyone, and in the confusion Blue Boobs had run away. That part wasn't planned; but Magneto seemed happy she was out. Lorelei didn't get to talk to any of them though; they got to stay on the inside of the lair - Lorelei was banished to the outside.  
In her Griffin form.  
Keeping lookout.  
From a perch.  
Again.  
Just like Germany.

_It's like nothing has even changed… besides the scenery_. Instead of a stately mansion to guard she had an ugly warehouse with bullet-proof glass and ridiculously thick walls, floors, and doors. She didn't get to watch a cliff, but she did have a nice view of the docks and boats… the large amount of water made her nervous though. The pigeons had been replaced with seagulls, the roof griffins with mutant guards, the flower garden with rusted boats, and the peaceful stillness with the metallic ring of civilization.

_I hate civilization_. Lorelei wasn't even sure what good she was doing out here. She stuck out like a sore thumb… or a five foot griffin statue placed strategically besides a door leading into a derelict warehouse that looks _exactly like the place_ you'd expect to find illegal activities and drugged up criminals.

_I am invisible_. She had moved from her usual spot though, and even changed back into her human form… which brings us back to her sitting on the docks and throwing bread to Mister Clutch.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Professor X studied the small group of X men in the "war room". No one felt like talking. The entirety of the week had gone spiraling downward just after Kurt had returned from his trip to Germany.

~~~~~~~~Recap!~~~~~~~~~

Remember a few chapte- er, days ago when Kitty and Lorelei were shopping? Kurt had left three days before then to investigate the Stillmans residence. Professor X had sent only Kurt to avoid a big scene. Kurt had been hiding in the basement, talking to some of the captives when suddenly a door had opened. Mister Stillman himself had walked coolly in and leaned against a wall, reading. Kurt stayed there, frozen, until a number of people entered and announced it was time to eat. Kurt used the loud noises to teleport away undetected. Or at least he thought. Stillman had noticed the puff of smoke over the top of his book and realized that the X Men were closer than he thought. Literally, they were only twenty feet away. He immediately left afterwards to inform his wife of this, and that it'd be best if they moved. Mrs. Stillman eventually agreed, and they readied to immigrate to the warehouse that Stillman had bought for such an occasion – because everyone knows the best place to hide is under your enemy's nose. You know what they say, "keep your enemies close" and all.

During the Stillman's debate upstairs, Kurt had returned to the cages once feeding time was done; only to find them empty. He meandered around the twisted underground chambers in search of the people for a while before stumbling upon an empty room. The room posed no real threat other than the currently distracted back of a certain mutant who the X-men had run into on one too many occasions. He left without setting the captives free and quickly made his way back to New York.

Kurt arrived two days after Kitty and Lorelei's shopping and used the midnight hours to explain to the Professor exactly who the Stillmans were in cahoots with. Professor X was very troubled over the news, and gathered Storm and a few others to investigate the matter further.

The small group left two days after Kurt arrived, and Kurt was assigned to Lorelei's side until the Professor returned. He was told not to speak of anything he'd found in Germany to Lorelei, and was to keep her occupied for the whole day. This lasted until about nine o'clock – Lorelei's self-proclaimed bedtime – when she suddenly decided to use her powers of mass-stupidity and made fun of the professor. Kurt – who was very stressed over the Germany incident and having to look after a seventeen year old baby the whole day – decided enough was enough and tried to knock her out humanely. After successfully doing just that… he went to the bathroom to wash his hands.

And then Magneto.

~~~~~~~~Still Recapping~~~~~~~~~

__The Stillmans had left with their bare necessities the day that Kurt had appeared. Having arrived at their already furnished warehouse that they got in advanced, they settled down quickly and got to work. They first contacted Magneto, expecting to have to wait a full week for him to return any sort of message. Magneto instead arrived the next day, because otherwise the story won't make se- uh, because Magneto was already in the area.

Magneto arrived with his group and they all introduced themselves and whatnot. Stillman learned his daughter was with the X men, and decided to scrap his original plan of drugging everything and instead went with the Rescue Daughter plan. Magneto left with his group and ordered Mystique to find a way into the mansion without disturbing everything. She returned later on with news that the Professor was going to leave the mansion in two days with a small group of the X Men, and advised using their dwindled numbers to their advantage. Magneto agreed and went to Stillman with the plan. Stillman said it was a good one.

~~~~~~~~Nope, Still Recapping~~~~~~~~~__

It was the day that Professor Xavier had left, and Logan bounced as well. Originally he had planned to join the Professor, but was in such an uncommonly good mood that he decided to spend the day doing what he wanted instead. After much drinking and catching up with old friends and enemies alike, he decided to end it by staring longingly into the sea. He stopped in front of an abandoned warehouse that smelled like it was being used, but decided against busting down its doors. He didn't feel like exposing crack addicts today; he was in a good mood. He stayed on the dock a while longer before realizing how pointless it was, and left for the mansion.

He arrived nearly an hour later, with a nagging feeling that something shit was about to happen. This feeling was encouraged when he saw Lorelei and Kurt rolling in the grass. He entered the garage with the bad feeling mounting, and brushed passed Beast in a hurry to check on the mansion. He did this to convince himself that the day wasn't going to sour.

The day finally went south when he finished searching the second level, and descended the stairs in time to see Kitty being slammed through a wall.__

Professor X had returned a week after the incident to find Mystique uncaptured and Lorelei still missing. Apparently Sabretooth had broken into the mansion in the early hours of the morning, and miraculously set the shape-shifter free. Charles now sat in the meeting room with the X Men, and the stragglers he'd picked up in his travels.

~~~~~~~~END RECAP!~~~~~~~~~

"So…" Professor X folded his hands in his lap. "Tell me again what happened."  
"I'll tell you what happened!" Scott slammed his fist down on the table, "It's a conspiracy!"  
Wolverine burst into laughter, "Ya got caught with your pants down Summers!"  
"Our defenses were up!"  
"Logan, Scott, please." Professor X scolded. "Lorelei has been kidnapped for no apparent reason. We don't know Magneto's motives, and that makes this situation all the more dangerous."  
Kurt looked down to his hands. "It's my fault," he muttered. "I left her side."

The professor looked to the blue mutant in sympathy. "The blame is not all on you, Kurt. There are many reasons as to why Magneto's raid was successful. True, we may not be in this situation now if you were able to teleport her to safety… but even in that scenario something might have gone wrong. We simply do not know, so there's no point in worrying about it."  
Kurt muttered something under his breath and picked some lint off his hand.  
"So what now?" Kitty asked.

Professor X stared at the table. _I had hoped to come back to the mansion and focus on getting Stillman into custody before things spiral out of control… We could… no… hmm. _Professor X considered his options for several minutes, and then finally came to a decision._  
_  
"Right now," Professor X continued slowly, "we should focus on getting a sample of that drug." He and smiled encouragingly to the group. "We'll split up. Hank, you'll lead a team in getting as much information as you can... try to find a clean version of the drug. Logan, you and a few others can go track Stillman down. He could still be in Germany, or he may have caught wind of Kurt and left."

Kitty raised her hand and spoke up, "Yeah, but what about Lorelei?"  
Professor X still hadn't figured out what to do with Lorelei. The first place to check for her would be wherever Magneto was… but there weren't enough people to go looking for her. "Whichever group frees up first will help look for Lorelei. In the meantime, Kitty, you can stay with my group. We'll be staying here and monitoring everyone else's activities… and whatever other odd jobs come up"  
Kitty groaned. _Why do I get the boring assignments?_  
_  
_~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei sat on an uncomfortable chair on the first floor of the warehouse. It was raining outside, and she didn't feel like getting wet. She was holding one of the rocks she was skipping stones with when the clouds decided to weep over her general vicinity; ending her games. She inspected its smooth surface, and wished she still had the ability to transform rocks into different shapes. When she had forced her mind and abilities into the griffin statue in an attempt to break it six months ago, she'd gotten stuck. When she used her rock-shifting abilities to get back out the two sort of meshed, and her powers and mind were now in the rock… instead of outside and in her physical body. Any attempt at transfiguring rocks in the environment now only caused her statue to form around her body. She'd never figured out how to shake off the statue, but to get back to her human side all she had to do was stop transfiguring.

Imagine it this way: Lorelei's stone form… is hot wax. You've got hot wax from a candle stuck on your fingertips. You attempt to get the sticky stuff off, but you're only allowed to use your fingers – nothing else. In your attempts to get the wax off, you only transfer it from one finger to the next. Say you give up trying to get it off and go about your day with the stuff still on you… and then try to grab another candle – in Lorelei's case, another rock – all you get is more wax on your hands. Well... if the wax is constantly hot I guess.

"Sooooo…" Lorelei attempted to start a conversation with Blue Boobs. "What's your name?"  
Mystique continued rummaging through her bag of… whatever, ignoring Lorelei's question.  
"I can't keep calling you Blue Boobs."  
Silence.

"So… I _can_ call you Blue Bo-"  
"Please shut up."  
Lorelei sighed. No one here was friendly; even Logan had a warm disposition when compared to Blue Momma.  
"Heh… can I call you Blue Momma?"  
"You can call me 'You'll Kill Me'."  
"You'll kill… OH! Hah that's a good one!" Lorelei clung to the tiny piece of conversation and attempted to run with it. "So vat's your favorite color?"  
"Ugh." Mystique got up and left, leaving Lorelei grinning haphazardly, unsure how to proceed.  
"Good talk!" She shouted after Blue Lady, "We should grab some coffee next time!"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Ve should grab some coffee right now!" Kurt gripped hard and shook Logan's shoulder, pointing excitedly to the passing Starbucks. "I vant the one vith the cream!"  
"You don't need coffee." Logan pried the priest's fingers from his collarbone and went back to driving. "We need to get to the airport."  
"Can ve can buy a souvenir?"  
"No."

"Kurt, take a look at this thing." Scott handed Kurt his phone, hoping that slashing the bright and colorful fruits would distract him from the fact that he was sounding more and more like a crazy person.  
"Kurt I've said this before," Jean patted his head, "You need to sleep."  
"Nonsense! I'm fine! I could hit two stones vith one bird, and I don't even like mustard."  
Silence.  
"Tomatoes aren't even vegetables you know, they're fruits."  
"We know." Scott replied. "You should get some rest. The Stillmans might not have even used the airports… this could be a goose chase. We could be here for hours."

"The fuck is that?" Logan squinted against the glare from the oncoming traffic, and despite his superior reflexes, he could not hit the brakes hard enough to keep from colliding with the man on the highway.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Beast enjoyed science. Science was nice. Science was understandable. Science did not tell him that he smelled or needed to comb his hair. Science was his friend. He loved science. Science loved him."

"He did not like the science where you did things with dead bodies - the cutty-openy science. Dissecting frogs was fun, if it was for science. Scraping brains off the floor and putting them into tubes was not fun, even if it was science. Needless to say, he did not appreciate Wolverine brining in dead science, with the hopes the Beast had science to revive dead bodies once they were smashed with cars, scientifically-"

"Kurt, shut your mouth right now."  
Kurt looked over to Beast, wounded that the other blue mutant did not appreciate his background narrative. "But-"  
"No."  
Kurt sighed and left the lab, to the tune of his imaginary sad violin background music.

Beast gingerly scooped more brains into the little test-tube. He really didn't like this part.  
"Soooo… let me get this straight..."  
"He just came outta nowhere." Wolverine stared balefully at the smashed body on the table. "Thought I saw something, then it was there." He shrugged disinterestedly and went back to his staring, hoping the dead would give up and leave the guy's body.  
"Hmm." Beast responded, nearly dribbling some stuff onto his hand.  
Scott poked his head into the lab, making the two men jump at his sudden appearance when he spoke up, "Hey. We have a match."  
"Well I've got a cigar." Wolverine looked over expectantly at his least favorite X-man.  
"Not… that match. We know who the guy is."  
"And?"  
"He's a hobo."  
"Yes thank you, his tattered clothing didn't already give that away." Beast strained to keep his sarcasm reigned in, but the brain stuff was getting to his head.  
Scott straightened his paper, unfazed by Beasts response, "He's a mister John E. Boye."  
"Alright now you're just fucking with us." Logan got up from his chair and snatched the paper away from Scott and read it himself.

"Jonathan… Murdoc… is this even important?"  
"Could be. Scott, please tell me you had the foresight to put his name into the da-"  
"Of course I did!" Scott grabbed the paper from wolverine, hurt that they would question his intelligence. "I said he was a hobo. He's been in jail a few times for drug possession, but that's it. No job since 2008, divorced, no kids, had a dog at one time or another…" Scott went back to reading the printout. "He was a professional hot-dog eater."  
"I wonder what he was doing on the highway?"

"He was high." Beast slammed on a starnge looking computer a few times before it spat out a long sheet with numbers and weird words on it. "He has almost every drug conceivable in his system… wait… no…" Beast skimmed over the paper while the machine continued to sputter and protest. "Its one drug with basic elements from some others… like a super drug."  
"Sounds like fun." Wolverine picked at his nails.  
"I think this might be Stillma-"  
"I KNOW WHOS DRUG IT IS!" Jean burst through the door, gripping triumphantly to a tiny bottle. "It's Stillmans!"

Beast stared at her incredulously. "You stole my thunder," he whispered.  
"It's Stillmans!" She repeated. "I found this in his shoe, in the sole. It was sewn inside. It… says Stillman on it." She held the amber-brown bottle up to the light, revealing a liquid with a tiny pill-looking thing floating around inside.  
"WELL," Beast threw the paper into the trash, thoroughly tired and upset. "I guess my work here is done."  
"Aw, Hank." Jean walked over and patted his furry arm. "We need you very much. I might have found the bottle, but we have no idea what it is. We neeeeeeed you." She tugged at his lab coat, trying to sugar him up. "Please?"  
"Meh."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei adjusted one of her stone feathers that was grating against her wing. She was attempting to fly by hopping down and flapping furiously from the metal walkways that reached across the upper levels of the warehouse. It was impossible, she was too damn heavy.

"I believe I can flyyyyy…!" She howled for the fifth time as she careened back down to earth, this time cracking the concrete floor upon landing. "Dammit… it was like that when I got here!" She told no one in particular.  
"OH LORELEI YOU CRACKED THE FLOOR!" She chided herself out loud.  
"I AM SO SORRY!"  
"YOU SHOULD BE!"  
_I need friends_. She flopped onto her stomach, etching tiny pictures into the concrete.

"Vat are you doing?" Lorelei's father peered over her shoulder, watching her draw a tiny sun with a smily face.  
"Vone day, ven the archeologists come, they vill see this and say, 'Oh, maybe those homo sapiens vere actually dumb. See how they draw their sun vith the smile? Don't they know the sun is not sapient? Maybe the stupid Homo-sapiens worship the smile-sun-god, and sacrifice-'"  
"Das ridiculous." Her father scoffed. "No vone vill find the pictures. I have something to show you, get up."  
Lorelei did as she was told, but stayed as a griffin just to irritate her dad a bit. "Are ve going to Disneyworld?"  
"Nien."  
"Vill we?"  
"Maybe."  
"Ven?"  
"Shoosh! See this?" He opened one of the inner warehouse doors that lead to his office. It was filled with wooden crates with the family crest.  
"Are these the drugs?" Lorelei looked skeptically between the crates and her father. She still had no idea what the drug did. _Probably nothing too nice_.  
"Ja. We disperse it soon."  
"Vat does it do?"  
Mr. Stillman looked down at his stone daughter. "Science." He answered simply.  
"Ja but… vat science?" Lorelei opened one of the crates and peered inside. Hundreds of little brown dropper bottles looked back at her. "Vat do they actually do?"  
"I said science!" Her father folded his arms and glared at her. "Close that box, I just wanted you to know which door to guard more closely!"  
"Oh…"  
"You are dismissed."  
"Vat?" Lorelei's head nearly snapped from the speed at which she turned to him. "I am not your employee! You say 'thank-you Lorelei, that vill be all' or something like that! I am your daughter, not a dog!"  
"Ja, that is all or vatever." He made a shooing motion with his hand, "now go out!"  
"You. Are. Large. BUTT!" Lorelei howled and darted out the room, intent on never looking at the door, the drugs, or the damn warehouse ever again. "Vhy are you so mean? I didn't even do anything!"

Lorelei sprinted out the front door of the warehouse, literally smashing right through it. _Damn, I don't know where to go_. She ran circles around the warehouse and its surrounding buildings, trying to get a sense of where she was. She gave up after thirty minutes, settling for roosting on the metal roof of one of the buildings. The rain had let up a long while ago, but some tiny puddles still lingered to reflect the moon and make tiny waves when the wind blew. _Maybe dad vill feel bad now_. She pretended to close her eyes as she drifted off to sleep. _Maybe he vill feel bad and take me to Disneyland… Disney…vorld… vichever._ She fell asleep before she noticed mister clutch settling down between the space of her wings and her shoulders. If she had seen him, she would have howled in protest. Cleaning poop off anything is not a fun job. Especially when it's on your back.

* * *

Will Lorelei go to Disney...worldland? Will we ever know the difference? Will Kurt *finally* sleep? Will the drug ever be used? stay tuned next time to find out maybe. and remember, -DONT DO DRUGS KIDS-!


	13. Drugs Abound

I have nothing to say. But the top of my story looked weird without anything here, so I'm putting something here.  
Disclaimer: I don't have one, but this looks more official with a disclaimer.

* * *

Nein," Lorelei pushed Kurt away, disgusted. "I don't vant your second-hand ice cream."  
"But it's chocolate!" Kurt tried to reason with the disinterested griffin, "Chocolate is best." He shoved the cone back underneath her beak, trying to get her to take just a tiny bite.  
She turned her head and glared at him out the corner of her eye. "Vanilla is best." She hissed.  
"Chocolate!"  
"You can put vatever you vant on vanilla. Chocolate tastes disgusting with strawberry jam."  
"Pfft." Kurt scoffed. "Who puts jam on their ice cream?"  
"ME." Lorelei huffed. She got up from the table they were seated at and walked out the kitchen, but not before the oven spontaneously combusted and Iceman turned into a snowglobe.

"AGH!" Kurt bolted upright, heaved a few breaths and scratched the back of his head. I need to lay off the spicy potato chips before bed.  
"Kuuuurt."  
Kurt flinched at the sound of someone's incognito whispering, it sounded close.  
"Kurt!"  
Nightcrawler swung his legs over the side of his bed. "Vat? Who's there?"  
"Nonononono- OW!"  
Kurt stumbled off of something fluffy and landed back onto his bed. "Kitty?"  
"That hurt." Kitty dragged herself up through the floor she had poked her head through and flopped onto his bed.  
"How long have you been there?" Kurt mumbled, sneakily kicking some boxers under a chair.  
"Dunno, like, five minutes? You were talking about ice cream."  
"Yeah…" He yawned and pretended like nothing happened. "So… vhy are you here?"

"Mmmm." Kitty smiled apologetically. "Actually, Piotr and I were just talking-"  
"Ja, everyone knows you two like each other. It's not news to me" Kurt grinned wickedly.  
"No!" She kicked at his leg and missed. "We were talking about Lorelei. No one's looking for her, we should find her."  
"I can think of a few reasons why we shouldn't."  
"What?! Lorelei's-"  
"Our friend, ja, but if the Professor could think of a good way to get to her he would of told us by now."  
"It's taking too long, what if she's in trouble?"  
"I doubt it, she's with Magneto." Kurt shoved his feet beneath the covers to warm them again. "Magneto's got no connection with Lorelei no matter vhich way you look at it. The only logical explanation is that he's working with Stillman. She's vith her family."  
"But what if she's unhappy! She should be here."  
"She's fine! We don't need to look for her!" Kurt tugged at the cover that Kitty was sitting on.  
"Why aren't you being helpful?" She hissed and pulled the blankets back away from him, "I thought you liked her."  
"I don't like her! She's a nuisance! We need that dru-"  
"Drug this drug that." Kitty smacked her knee and jumped up. "Everyone's worried about the drug. What if Lorelei's in trouble? No one thinks about that!"

"Kitty-"  
"No." Kitty folded her arms and made to leave the room.  
"Waitwaitwait!" Kurt hissed, "Don't use the door!"  
"Dammit shut your mouths!" Wolverine pounded on the wall near Kurts' bed.  
"If Wolverine was kidnapped we'd look for him" Kitty motioned towards the banging's general direction.  
"There's no way he'd ever let himself be kidnapped."  
"Damn right." Came a muffled growl from the other side of the wall.  
"Logan." Kitty tapped on his wall softly. "You'd look for her right? You could track her."  
Silence.  
"Logan."  
Silence.  
"C'mon, please?"  
"What?"  
Kitty jumped at the sudden loud noise. It sounded like he was right in her ear.  
"We should find Lorelei." Kitty lowered her voice, knowing he could hear her just fine. "She could be in trouble."  
"Ain't likely."  
"But what _if_."  
There was a halfhearted grunt and the creak of a bed.  
"Wolverine?"  
Nothing.  
"Fine."

Kitty phased back down through Kurt's floor, and dropped onto Piotr's bed below.  
"Did he say yes?"  
Kitty rolled her eyes and mocked Kurt's accent, "Nein. He said nein."  
"Aw." Piotr went over and patted Kitty's head in an attempt to console her. "Professor will find a way. Little Bird will be fine."  
"You too?" Kitty glared at him. "I thought you said you'd come with me!"  
"I- uh, well…"  
"Piotr!"  
"Aw come on, Kitty. Professor does not hate Lorelei." Piotr squatted to get eye level with her. "If he could save her don't you think he would?"

"I never called that part into question!" Kitty cried, exasperated. "I just said it was taking too long! It's been a month already! All we've done it play with sacks of crack and bottles of-"  
Iceman burst through the door. "Did somebody say- OH GOD KITTY WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN PIOTRS ROOM!"  
"Wait!" Piotr made a shushing sign and waved his hands and the intruding mutant, "It's not like that!"  
"For the love of all things holy Piotr, I thought you knew better!"  
"I would never-"  
"Bobby!" Kitty shoved him back out the door, "Get out!"  
"SHE'S A MINOR COLLOSUS!"  
"OUT!"  
"SHE'S BUT A SMALL CHILD!"  
Kitty grabbed Iceman by the shirt and hurled him back inside his room. She turned to close Piotrs door and growled, "I'm going to bed."  
Piotr sat there after she'd slammed the door, still waving. "Good… night?"

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei sat on the steps of the warehouse, staring disinterestedly out to sea. It was a fairly nice day - there wasn't a rain cloud in sight, and the birds were keeping mostly to themselves. Papa and Magneto were inside yelling again, and Papa sounded a bit scared this time. Mama was there too. She scared everyone else, even Angry Biceps.

She flicked a piece of paint off the old railing besides her and watched it flutter away. The other man had showed up as well - the one Papa had originally done his drug things with. He didn't stay long, just showed up for a few seconds and looked menacing, then left. He was the reason Papa and Magneto were yelling now.

_Why can't I ever get someone's name down?_

Angry Biceps had had a hissy fit earlier and broke some things, and Magneto put him in an impromptu cage. Still no one could figure out what had pissed the big guy off so much, but other than that and the weird guy nothing much had happened over the last month.

_This is so boring_.

Lorelei leaned back and closed her eyes. This was prime napping time; warm, sunny, slight breeze, sound of the ocean – can't beat that.  
_Except that I'm bored_.  
Lorelei groaned and hit the railing in anger, bruising the side of her hand.  
"THERE AREN'T EVEN ANY BOARD GAMES HERE!" She howled out loud.  
_I'd kill for Monopoly right now… or twister. Something. ANYTHING_.

Sighing, she pushed herself upright and went to do her rounds. She started with the derelict boats that occasionally bumped into the equally shoddy docks that housed them. She'd then have to pass a giant rusted boat out of water after that and make sure no one was hiding in it. Then she'd go around the back and enter a neatly hidden door that lead to the drugs storeroom and then into the warehouse.

Lorelei paused at the storeroom this time though. The place was piled high with boxes containing either bottles or baggies.  
_ Great. Two drugs now?  
I guess we threw discreet out the window when we decided to put our freaking name on these things.  
_  
The little family crest etched into the side of one of the wooden boxes stared back at her. It was the box that had the baggies with the powder on them. They came in – from wherever – in twos; the number of bottle boxes always matched up with the bag boxes. Lorelei rearranged a few of the crates; Papa still hadn't told her what type of drugs they were. They'd been selling them little by little over the last few days - some of Papas workers would come in and take a few and disappear again.

_No one here ever asks questions. Don't they know what they're even taking?_

Lorelei stared at the box, hoping it would grow sentient and spill its secrets. It didn't.  
"Vat are you?"  
Nothing.  
Lorelei stood on her tiptoes and lifted two of the boxes lids, and counted their contents. Four layers of twenty five bottles or baggies. Would they notice one missing?  
"No."  
She slammed the lids back down and hurried back out the room.  
_Stupid, stupid, stupid, why would you even think about that?  
_  
"Lorelei!"  
Lorelei jumped at the sound of her father's voice and squeaked, "Nein! It vas the griffin king! I did nothing!"  
Ernest looked at his daughter with contempt and spoke slowly as if she were stupid. "Are you finished vith your rounds?"  
"Uh." Lorelei eyed her dad skeptically. They hadn't been on very good terms since he'd told her she had to guard the drugs. They hadn't been on good terms for a very long time, but Lorelei forgave him for it. He was busy after all… it was just stress…  
Right? He's just stressed… "Ja, I'm done vith it."  
Mr. Stillman squinted and motioned towards Lorelei's jacket, "Turn out your pockets."  
"Vat?"  
"Turn. Out. Your. Pockets."

Lorelei's heart sank a bit. She didn't have anything, but she turned her pockets out and showed her father how lint-filled and undruggy they were. "See, nothing."  
"Good girl." He walked past and patted her head.  
Lorelei watched him retreat back into his office, and the banter between him and metal-head kicked up again. She sighed and went back outside to the steps, where she stayed for another thirty minutes before she had to walk around again.

_So. Bored._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Beast sat at his lab table and poked at the pile of stuff that came from the Stillmans baggie. Professor X watched it as well, almost expecting it to spontaneously combust.  
"I don't get it." Hank scratched his chin and leaned back. "I really don't get it."  
Professor X cocked his head. He wasn't much help when it came to these sciency things – maybe if the pile of whatever had a brain he could read it, but he had no idea what all the readings that came out of Beasts machines meant.

"Well…" Charles offered in an attempt to be helpful. "Start at square one."  
Hank nodded. "Well, we got this bag of drugs from Mystique who took on your likeness and told Kitty to bring it to me. Mystique just gave it to us."  
"Right." Professor X agreed. "She gave it to us when Lorelei had just come back from the danger room with her head lopped off."  
"Mmhmm. She'd only been here a few weeks or so."  
"Okay…"

The two looked at each other, trying to figure out what happened from there.  
"Magneto… kidnaps… Lorelei?" Hank offered.  
"Did anything important happen between those two times?"  
Hank stared at the Professor. _Did something happen?_ "Lorelei almost died for a second… they went shopping, Kurt went to Germany…"  
"Exactly."  
"What?" Beast squinted at his telepathic friend. What was Professor X waiting for him to say? "Kurt went to Germany… OH. And the Stillmans moved. Somewhere."  
"He's no longer in Germany." Professor helped his blue friend along, hoping that it was helping somehow.  
"Stillman disappears, Magneto nabs Lorelei, Lorelei disappears…"  
"I think it's safe to say Stillman and Magneto are in cahoots." Professor X offered. "Or maybe Magneto's suddenly interested in granite roof features."  
"So Magneto brought Lorelei to Stillman, maybe, which means that Stillman might be over here... or Magneto's gone worldwide with his human domination plan."  
"Makes sense." Professor X agreed.  
"So, if Magneto is working with Stillman and his drug… why did Mystique give it to us?"

Charles looked back to the pile of stuff that Beast had been prodding for over a month already. All that they were able to know so far was that the stuff was a bunch of chemicals. It did nothing. Beast said it had no effect on the human body at all.  
"It appears to just be a placebo at this point." Professor X mused.  
Hank folded his hands in his lap and shrugged in defeat. "Maybe it's incomplete. Maybe it needs another ingredient? Maybe it's nothing at all. Maybe Magneto's trying to send a message. Maybe I need more coffee."  
"That… bottle?"  
Hank poured some more coffee and looked back to the professor.  
"That bottle," Professor X repeated, "that was on the man that wolverine hit. Did you ever combine the two?"  
"Yes, of course." Hank nodded. "It simply made the powder wet. They didn't interact at all. In fact, the liquid in the bottle seems to be just that – the liquid form of the powder. It's the exact same thing. Almost. The little pill floating inside of it probably does something, but unfortunately…"  
"What?" Professor X accepted the cup of bitter drink and tried to keep from tearing up. Should have known it's scalding hot.  
"I lost the pill inside, it just disappeared."

"Well. That's anticlimactic."  
Beast shrugged. "Meh," he downed his coffee in one gulp and began cleaning up. "Other than the usual perception distortions and general loss of brain cells, these drugs are nothing special. It's just fancy crack."  
"It's one more drug that doesn't need to be here, and there has to be more to this." Professor X followed Beast around the room as he cleaned up. "People disappeared where the drug was first being distributed. They were being taken to the Stillmans home; now the Stillmans are missing and the drugs still circulating – but there aren't any mass kidnappings."  
"He must have used those men and women as test subjects."  
"He's just made fancy crack!" Professor X cried. "There's no need to kidnap people for that. There has to be more to this! We need to leave this drug alone and-"

"FIND LORELEI!" Kitty burst through the door, dragging a very distressed Kurt by the collar. "He finally agreed that it's best we look for her. That's seven votes, I win, let's GO."  
"Kitty-"  
"Don't 'Kitty' me Professor, It's been over-"  
"Miss Pryde, that's a wonderful idea. Of course we'll search for Lorelei."  
"You never liste- oh… really?" Kitty let go of Kurt, who teleported behind Beast.  
"She's crazyyy." He rasped, gripping his collar.

~~~~~~~~Two Months Later~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei was once again staring at the boxes in the storeroom. Over the last few weeks her father had asked her to actually interact with the people selling the drugs. _We must be really short-staffed_.

It had been weird at first. She hadn't seen anyone besides her own reflection in the pools of water outside and her father on occasion for a long time. Magneto and his group didn't visit the warehouse as much as before – before he'd had a giant argument with her dad. He'd only visit once every week or so after that.

A crumpled piece of paper floated out from one of the boxes that Lorelei had just shifted and settled on her shoe.  
_Hello piece of paper.  
Hello, Lorelei.  
Should I read you?  
Only if you know the secret password_.  
Lorelei huffed a piece of her fringe out her eyes and set the crate down to read the note anyways_. I don't need your permission, paper._

…dammit I need friends.

She immediately recognized the handwriting on the paper – it was Garveys. It looked like it had been torn from a notebook; but not before being dumped in water, stomped upon and probably licked. _Wait a minute, Garvey's dead. These are newish boxes… they just arrived with the last shipment_. Lorelei flipped the paper over. In Garveys slanted scrawl, she could just make out a couple rows of some type of math problem. She mouthed them, as if it would help her see a bit better.

"Dirt plus water plus seed makes… new flower? Dirt plus water minus seed makes… nothing… the hell?" She scratched the back of her head in irritation. _Garvey were you high when you wrote this?_ She stretched the paper further from her face and squinted. _Maybe there's invisible ink?_  
"Dirt alone makes the foundation… water alone makes the foundation… dirt and seed makes nothing… water and seed makes… nah fuck it." She shoved the paper into her back pocket. _As much as I loved the old man, I don't have time for this. He died a long time ago. _  
"ALONG VITH MY HOPES AND DREAMS!" She howled.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Logan looked up from the coordinates on the piece of paper that Magneto had given to the Professor. _Well shit, aint this a surprise._ He was standing in front of the warehouse he'd been contemplating busting down a few months ago.

_Charles is gonna love this._

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

"Lorelei!"  
"Vat now?" She kicked a box unceremoniously out her way and stomped towards the door.  
Ernest Stillman stood in the entryway, looking a bit nervous. "Turn out your pockets, Lorelei."  
"Not this again."  
"Just do it."  
"Dad I'm not taking your dumb drugs. Leave me alone."  
"Lorelei!"  
"Neraler!" Lorelei mocked him. "Neraler tern ert yer perkerts!"  
"Dammit child I don't have time for this! What do you have?"  
"NOTHING!"

Ernest made an attempt to check her pockets for himself, but Lorelei bolted back inside the storeroom and held one of the boxes in front of her, holding it ransom.  
"You do that again and I'll drop this box!"  
"Lorelei!" Stillman pleaded. "First off, that box is filled with bags. Second off, I'm just worried your vell-being. Is that so bad?"  
"Ja. Coming from you. You're nothing but… butt!"  
"Och. Just show me your pockets."  
Lorelei groaned, but turned them out anyways. "Vhy all of a sudden are you so worried? You didn't do this back home."  
"Hm." Her father waved her off and turned to leave, "Later."  
"Later… vat?" she threw a baggie at him. "I said later vat!"  
Ernest shook his head and left, ignoring the torrent of questions coming from behind.

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Stillman shut the door to his office and rubbed his brow. Lorelei was getting worse. _She's always muttering to herself…  
_  
He watched her bump the back door open and hand two boxes to one of his distributors. He'd hoped that at least seeing other people would calm her nerves, but she was just getting… stranger.  
"It's not good keeping kids locked up like that…" Garvey warned.  
Ernest turned to the man sitting in a chair in the far corner of the office. "What do you know about kids?"  
The Irishman shrugged. "Your daughters always been… special. Even before her mutation."  
Ernest bristled at the man's insult. "There's nothing wrong with my daughter."  
"No," Garvey mused, and then smiled to himself. "Not for long."

Ernest turned back towards the window, and Garvey joined him and they watched as Lorelei picked up a stick and poked an unidentified blob of grey mass that was clinging to one of the dumpsters.  
"Yup," Garvey slapped Ernest on the back. "Your kids something else."

~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~

Lorelei shoved a stick through something grey and squishy on the dumpster. _The hell _is_ this?_  
She stopped after a while and went back inside to straighten the boxes, pulling the piece of paper in her pocket out from time to time in an attempt to decipher it.

_Vat do you think these drugs do?_ She glared at one of the bottles and shook its contents.  
_Something secret._  
She pulled a bag out from a nearby box and held it up too. _Vat should ve do?_  
There was silence from the other end, as if she were contemplating the answer to her own question.

_Don't know.  
_

* * *

Thanks for reading! :)  
AND DONT DO DRUGS! :(


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